1 . Morning tea is a family tradition. It is nothing less than an art form, with the ______ laid down by my late grandmother. Her ______ had been formed during her childhood years ______ in the border state of Punjab, the land of five rivers, the bread basket of India. After her marriage, she eventually ______ to Mumbai, located on the western coast of the country. She lived here for nearly 70 years, bringing with her the ______ of home.

Each morning started with a cup of tea boiled in a kettle. Her favorite was a(n) ______ of fine black Assam loose leaf tea, to which a small amount of CTC tea was ______ for color and flavor. This mix would be ______ without a little crushed cardamom(小豆蔻).

Accompanying the tea was milk, ______ to boil. Both were served in stainless steel pots in quilted(有夹层的)covers, keeping them ______. The final touch was her cup, prewashed in boiling water, so she could ______ a steaming cup of tea.

Adding a spoonful of ______ sugar and a spot of milk to the beverage, she would drink it with her biscuits. Occasionally it would be sweet grape biscuits dipped in the tea, but with age, she ______ moved on to digestive biscuits packed with fiber. Depending on the ______, her tea would be ______. On hot days, she would drink iced tea, and on cool windy days, she’d mix up the spices.

1.

A．attitude

B．rule

C．identity

D．policy

2.

A．belief

B．impression

C．character

D．taste

3.

A．growing up

B．passing down

C．hanging out

D．getting along

4.

A．traveled

B．returned

C．moved

D．escaped

5.

A．imaginations

B．memories

C．expectations

D．relatives

6.

A．mix

B．experiment

C．show

D．sight

7.

A．boiled

B．drunk

C．added

D．washed

8.

A．incomplete

B．colorless

C．informal

D．endless

9.

A．sold

B．weighed

C．tested

D．heated

10.

A．fresh

B．hot

C．wet

D．clean

11.

A．make

B．preserve

C．buy

D．enjoy

12.

A．regular

B．cheap

C．expensive

D．rare

13.

A．secretly

B．gradually

C．generally

D．possibly

14.

A．biscuit

B．milk

C．container

D．weather

15.

A．common

B．interesting

C．different

D．important

2 . As a child I was one of the 125 people at our family gathering for New Year. These days we were a much smaller group in Belle Valley, Ohio. I insisted (坚持要求的) on acting as hostess and wanted to bring back the joy I’d felt at my childhood New Year that filled with love.

As family members arrived at the hall, I handed each one of them a numbered card and said, “Time for the alphabet game.” “What kind of game is that?” one of my great-grandchildren asked. “well,” I said, “who’s got number one?” A cousin raised her hand. “Tell us something you never forget,” I said. “Something that begins with the letter A.” My cousin smiled. “Apple pie!” she said. Great-granddaughter Mindy was next. “B,” she said. “I am impressed by Buckeye Country.” “Cookies!” Number 3 shouted.

Until Number 17, “The next one’s a challenge,” I said. “Who’s got 17?” Ryan, my son, slowly raised his hand. “Q,” he said. “Quaker City Carnival (嘉年华).” The room went silent.

“It’s one of the oldest traditions in Ohio,” Ryan said. “Grandma and Grandpa met there. That’s where they fell in love. That’s where this whole thing started. This whole family.” Ryan looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone. “We wouldn’t be here celebrating New Year together if it wasn’t for Quaker City Carnival.”

The room burst into laughter and was full of the love that had kept us connected to our Ohio traditions. “This is the best New Year we’ve ever had,” a great-grandson said to me secretly. Whatever their New Year would look like when they grew up, they’d remember this one. And for me, I had an unforgettable New Year to treasure   — a memory where love started with the letter Q.

1. Why did the author organize the alphabet game?

A．To enjoy the family gathering.	B．To bring joy and love to the children.
C．To share moving stories with family.	D．To experience long-lost New Year happiness.

2. What do we know about the game?

A．It is related to guessing.	B．It is one of Ohio’s traditional games.
C．It is mainly about numbers and letters.	D．It describes the history of some words.

3. Why did Ryan’s story get family members’laughter?

A．It reminded them of a tradition.	B．It was related to their family roots.
C．They knew their grandparents better.	D．They understood the meaning of love.

4. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．A Letter Full of Love	B．A Celebration of New Year
C．A Family Custom at New Year	D．A Love Story About the Carnival

3 . In the Hollywood movie The Martian, actor Matt Damon plays an astronaut who grows food on Mars(火星)to survive alone on the red planet.

After seeing the movie, Washington State University physicist Michael Allen and University of Idaho food scientist Helen Joyner decided to carry out a case study helping students figure out how to farm on Mars. In the case study, students have to imagine they are mining(采矿) on Mars and decide how to feed themselves there before starting on the journey. They get advice from Allen and Joyner on how to select crops and take the challenges of growing crops over long periods on Mars. Students use a scoring system to select three foods to plant on Mars.

Allen found the results impressive: among 30 students, “no two people have ever gotten the same answer”, he said.

Human travelers to Mars will likely have to make use of resources on the planet rather than take everything they need with them on a spaceship. This means farming their own food on another planet, one that has a very different ecosystem (生态系统) from Earth’s.

One challenge for those who would like to live on Mars is the fact that there can be no farming tools. Like real astronauts, students taking part in the study cannot take a lot of farming tools with them. As Joyner put it to his student astronauts, “You are starting with nothing.”

Besides, students also have to deal with a very limited choice of diet. “If I had to eat a single food for the rest of my life, could I do it?” Joyner asked.

But Allen believes the case study is about more than farming and eating on the Red Planet.

“I’m not teaching about growing food on Mars,” Allen said. “I’m teaching about living with choices. I’m teaching about problem solving.”

1. In the case study, students have to __________.

A．watch the movie to know the conditions on Mars

B．decide which crop to grow on Mars with the help of the teachers

C．design different types of diets on Mars for them to choose

D．understand how to farm on Mars with their favorite farming tools

2. Michael Allen thinks that the case study __________.

A．increases students’ knowledge about farming

B．helps student know more about Mars

C．develops students’ skills of solving problems

D．teaches students how to make proper choices

3. The passage is mainly intended __________.

A．to describe a research on how to farm on Mars

B．to prepare us to deal with problems on Mars

C．to teach us how to survive on Mars alone

D．to introduce a Hollywood movie, The Martian