1 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Alice Thompson is a girl from Sydney, Australia. She had her first long     1     (distant) train ride at the age of 18. Together with a friend, she got     2     the famous Ghan train in Sydney and got off in Alice Springs. During the two days and nights, they ate meals     3     (cook) by experts and saw fields, desert and     4     (abandon) farms. In the daytime, Alice talked to other passengers and read some books. At night, she watched the stars in the sky     5     shone like diamonds.

Why is the train     6     (call) the Ghan? It is short for Afghanistan. A long time ago, Australians wanted to travel to the middle of their country, so they brought some     7     (train) camels from Afghanistan    8     (carry) food and other supplies, and returned with wool and other     9     (produce). They did that until     10     1920s, when the government built a new railway line and took the place of camels.

3 . 假定你是李华，你的加拿大笔友Peter来信询问你对打算如何度过高三毕业后的暑假。请你给Peter回复邮件，内容包括：
1. 对暑假的期盼；
2. 你的暑假计划及理由(计划包括去北京旅游、做兼职工作、阅读)；
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
Dear Peter:

I’m more than delighted to hear from you!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours:

Li Hua

4 . Not only kids of Tiger Moms go to Harvard.

Dawn Loggins of Lawndale，N.C.is on her way to Harvard，one of the eight world­famous universities in the eastern US.Nobody encouraged her to study or paid for her special classes.This girl created her own future.

The teen was abandoned by her family last summer，when her parents and two sisters moved to Tennessee.She found herself homeless and had to spend the night on friend's sofas.

The school bus driver learned about Dawn's situation and invited Dawn to move in with her family.Soon，Dawn had a job at Burns High School.She worked from 6 a．m.to 7：40 a．m.before the first school bell rang.She swept floors and picked up trash again in the afternoons，before diving into her studies in the evenings.

Dawn's hard work paid off.She finished school with a 3.9 GPA and scored 2，110 on the SAT.

“There were times when I felt like it would be easiest if I gave up，”the 18­year­old said.“But it was never in me to give up，because I realized that I was never going to be successful unless I got an education.”

Even before Dawn's family left her，she led a difficult life.Her family was poor and cups of noodles were often the only food.Dawn“studied by candlelight”because her parents couldn't afford to pay the electricity bill(电费)．

Dawn has now reconnected with her family.They are proud of her accomplishments(成就)and are attending her high school graduation.

1. Why didn't Dawn give up her studies?

A．To reconnect with her family.

B．To thank those who had helped her.

C．To get an education to be successful.

D．To realize her dream of going to Harvard.

2. Who helped Dawn when she found herself homeless?

A．Her teachers.	B．Her neighbors.
C．A Tiger Mom.	D．A school bus driver.

3. What does the underlined word“abandoned”mean in Chinese?

A．宠爱	B．抛弃
C．鼓励	D．虐待

4. Which of the following words describes Dawn?

A．Open-­minded.	B．Good-­natured.
C．Strong-­willed.	D．Warm-­hearted

5. What is the best title for the text?

A．Another Harvard girl

B．A girl in candlelight

C．From homeless to Harvard

D．The role of Tiger Moms

5 . We spoke to three students from around the world about different national holidays. There are different customs for each festival.

Tan Xiaodong, 15, Hong Kong, China

“It’ll soon be the Chinese New Year. Before it, we’ll clean the house and decorate (装饰) it for good luck. Every shop is going to close for a few days and we’ll go out a lot to celebrate on the streets. We might go and see the lion and dragon dances in the city center. I love this festival.”

Wendy, 16, Sydney, Australia

“Australia Day is on 26th January and it’s an important holiday here. We always have a Monday off, so we celebrate for three days. My parents and I go to the countryside for a picnic and friends always come over. Many people go to beach parties or street parties and there’s lots of music and dancing. What fun!”

Amy, 14, New York, the USA

“The first Thanksgiving was celebrated hundreds of years ago when Europeans who came to America thanked God for his help. It’s still a very important day for family members to be together. This year we’re going to visit my grandparents and we’ll eat a delicious meal of turkey. Thanksgiving Day is on the fourth Thursday in November every year.”

1. How many festivals are mentioned in the passage?

A．Two.	B．Three.
C．Four.	D．Five.

2. During the Chinese New Year, tourists might________according to the passage.

A．do a lot of shopping	B．eat turkey
C．go to beach parties	D．see lion and dragon dances

3. On Australia Day, Wendy and her parents often________.

A．have a picnic in the countryside

B．go to a swimming pool

C．have a party at school

D．clean the house and dance

4. What do you think “turkey” is in this passage?

A．A country.	B．A festival.
C．A kind of food.	D．A kind of drink.

5. From the passage, we can learn that________.

A．Amy is from Sydney, Australia

B．different festivals have different customs

C．many people go out for a picnic with friends before the Chinese New Year

D．Thanksgiving Day is on 26th January in the USA

6 . Language Learning

Learning a new language can be tricky at any age. But in a recent study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a new language seem to quickly drop off: 10. Does this mean you should quit your French class if you’re older than 10? Non!

    1     It found that it’s “nearly impossible” to reach fluency if you start learning a language after age 10. That’s not because language skills start to go downhill. “You’re still learning fast,” says Joshua Hartshorne, one of the study’s coauthors. “It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old.” People who start learning a new language after age 10 may still become quite good, the authors say.     2    

Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more adaptable than those of adults.     3     “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says. “Children’s brains seem to be a lot more good at changing.” Kids may also be more willing than adults to try new things. And while adults tend to fall back on the rules and patterns of their first language, kids are able to approach a new one with a blank slate.

    4     It promised to guess people’s native language, dialect, and home country, based on their responses to English grammar questions. At the end of the quiz, people entered their actual native language. They also reported if and when they had learned any other languages and where they had lived. Nearly 670,000 people took the quiz. Analyzing people’s responses and grammar mistakes allowed them to draw conclusions about language learning.

The findings also offer ideas for adults hoping to pick up a new language.     5     Moving to a place where your chosen language is spoken all the time is the best way for adults to learn. Learners of all ages can search out native speakers in their community to talk with. By creating an immersive environment, it’s possible to become good at speaking a new language.

A．Now that’s worth talking about!

B．But they are unlikely to become fluent.

C．The study appeared in the journal Cognition.

D．For the study, the researchers created an online quiz.

E．This means they’re better able to respond to new information.

F．This gave researchers huge amounts of data from English speakers of many ages and backgrounds.

G．Researchers found that people did better when they learned by immersion rather than only in a classroom.