1 . I’m a seventeen-year-old boy preparing for my A Level exams at the end of the year. In the society where my peers (同龄人) and I live, we tend to accept the rat race values. As students, we want to get good grades so that we can get good jobs. I enjoy studying and have consistently received A’s in my classes. There was a year when I finished first in my class in the final exams. It was a great accomplishment.
Another one I am pleased with is that I managed to improve the relationship between Mum and Dad. Dad was a successful businessman who was rarely at home. Mum was a housewife who always felt bored and constantly nagged (唠叨) him to let her go to work. Their constant arguing bothered me, so I advised Dad that Mum would be better off with a part-time job. He agreed, and their relationship has improved since then.
My most proud achievement, however, is my successful work in the local old folks’ home. My grandparents had raised me since I was a child. I wept (哭泣) bitterly when they died. Unlike many of my classmates, I do not take part in my school’s community service to earn points. I enjoy my voluntary work and believe I’m contributing to a worthwhile cause. This is where I can help. I talk to the elderly, assist them with their daily life, and listen to their problems, glory days and the hardships they experienced.
Last year, I hosted a successful New Year party for the elderly and they enjoyed a great time. Many expressed a desire to attend another party the following year. When I reflect on my accomplishments, I’m especially proud of my service at the old folks’ home, so I hope to study social work at university and work as a social worker in the future. I wish to be more skilled in attending to the less fortunate and find great satisfaction in it, after all.
1. What can be inferred about the author from the first paragraph?| A．He is content with his learning achievements. | B．His good grades got him a good job. |
| C．He refuses to compete with his peers fiercely. | D．His views on social values are well known. |
| A．A bystander (旁观者). | B．A judge. | C．A helper. | D．A destroyer. |
| A．The contribution to volunteering. | B．The success in exams. |
| C．The recovery of confidence in life. | D．The work in school’s service. |
| A．To gain a well-paid job. | B．To give his life a purpose. |
| C．To better help the disadvantaged. | D．To meet his grandparents’ expectations. |
2 . Finally came Wednesday! I walked onto campus feeling nervous even though I had walked on these same grounds for two years because my junior high school is next door. Everything looked and felt different now that I was in senior high.
I looked at my schedule. First period-German. Our German teacher was very friendly and I liked her from the beginning. What I didn’t like, though, was that I was surrounded by students from other grades, with only five familiar faces.
Then I had to walk all the way across campus and up three flights of stairs to get to my second period-biology. Our biology teacher is Ms Campeau, and I think that she will teach us a lot this year because she is very to the point. She also has her unique way of saying be quiet; she says“alligator”. She explained that she is the king, or should I say queen, of the class because alligators are the “king of the swamps (沼泽)”.
My third class was English. After surviving two periods without too much of a challenge, I began to feel good. However, the third period changed everything. Mr Valassidis, my English teacher, told us that we would have to write 40 essays (文章) and read AP-level books such as The 0dyssey this year. I love reading and writing, but 40ESSA YS?AP-level books? Now I was scared. He also talked about how important it was to be focused. Last year was not a very “focused” year for me. While doing homework, I was often talking on the phone, or busy with a conversation online. I planned on stepping it up this year because I wanted to stay an honours student.
1. What did the author mainly write about in this passage?| A．Her new teachers. |
| B．Her plan for the new year. |
| C．Her first day of senior high. |
| D．Her schedule for Wednesday. |
| A．Sit still. | B．Stop talking. |
| C．Look at the blackboard. | D．Listen carefully. |
| A．Unattractive. | B．Informative. |
| C．Very tiring. | D．Pretty easy. |
| A．She couldn’t focus on her work. |
| B．She found the class demanding. |
| C．She didn’t like the teacher. |
| D．She did poorly at school. |
3 . I grew up with a four-year gap between myself and my younger brother. It was a distance (距离) in age to keep us close as we got older, but also an age gap to make sure we lived our own lives in completely different ways. Having a younger brother while I was a girl was a lot of work, for there was a lot of fighting.
However, as we’ve got older, we’ve become closer, and I’ve learned several things in life from my younger brother that I didn’t realize I needed before.
My younger brother is one of the most talented and creative souls (灵魂) I’ve known. He’s continually feeding his creativity with new art forms and new instruments. He always seeks to understand and learn more about the world around him. He’s helped remind me through his actions and words that giving up on creativity is something a person should never do.
My younger brother has also been through hard times, but he’s able to focus on learning from the hard times, unlike me, who tends to hold on to every little thing from my life. It’s always been difficult for me to let things go and move on, but my younger brother has been an inspiration (灵感来源) for me to try harder at letting go.
My younger brother has always been a more introverted type, and if you speak to him, you’re lucky to get over three words out of him at a time. Because of this, he’s certainly learned the whole “actions speak louder than words” thing. But, I’ve realized from my brother that I needn’t speak to fill the silence. Sometimes, it’s necessary to spend some of your time in silence and reflect in it.
1. What does the author think of growing up as the older sister?| A．Boring but warm. | B．Peaceful and easy. |
| C．Troubling but inspiring. | D．Enjoyable and exciting. |
| A．Trying to learn new instruments. |
| B．Focusing on little details of everything. |
| C．Moving on with the past kept in mind. |
| D．Keeping feeding her creativity. |
| A．They are talented. | B．They are quiet. |
| C．They are positive. | D．They are friendly. |
| A．It talks about the relationship between his brother and the author. |
| B．It introduces the great spirits of the author’s brother. |
| C．It is about lessons learned from the author’s brother. |
| D．Tell some advice provided by the author’s brother. |
4 . September usually marks the start of a new season—but what you call that season depends on where you are and whom you ask.
In the UK, people will tell you it’s “autumn”. However, cross the Atlantic and you'll find that people use both “fall” and “autumn” interchangeably (可互换地) when talking about this time of year. In the English language, the season has two widely accepted names. However, many people don’t understand why there are two words. Why does it have to be bewildering?
According to Dictionary. com, “fall” isn’t a modern nickname that followed the more traditional “autumn”. The two terms were actually first recorded within a few hundred years of each other.
Before either word appeared in the word list of English, the seasons separating the cold and warm months didn’t have common names. The main thing people did during the pre-winter period was collect crops, so it was called “harvest” in Old English.
Then, in the 1600s, more and more people left their farmland and moved into cities. Without farming, the term “harvest” became less useful to city dwellers (居民). Some English speakers needed another name for the season. They knew leaves fell from trees during that season, so people called the season “the fall of the leaf”, or “fall” for short. But at the end of the 1600s, “autumn”, from the French word “autompne” and the Latin “autumnus”, was introduced into England and overtook “fall” as the standard term for the harvesting season.
At the same time, British settlers were making their first long journey to North America. They brought the words “fall” and “autumn” with them. Today, using both words to describe the season is a uniquely American behavior.
1. What does the underlined word in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Confusing. | B．Interesting. | C．Shocking. | D．Inspiring. |
| A．To better describe crops. |
| B．To replace the term “harvest”. |
| C．To mark the move into cities. |
| D．To celebrate the harvesting season. |
| A．It is a French word. | B．It is preferred by farmers. |
| C．It means harvesting crops. | D．It appears later than “fall”. |
| A．Harvest and Weather | B．Fall and Autumn |
| C．The Season of September | D．The Origin of Autumn |
5 . A quick walk onto a frozen pond (池塘) could have been a disaster for these two boys.
Cruz Genet, 11, and Anthony Skopick, 10, couldn’t agree more. Were the birds out on the ice ducks or geese? There was only one way to find out. So on a cold January evening last year, the two friends walked onto the frozen pond near their homes to get a better look.
First, they threw a rock onto the ice to test it. Believing the ice would hold their weight, Anthony took a few steps, and then he crashed through the seemingly frozen surface. “There was no sound and no crack”, he told the reporter. “I just fell through immediately.”
Cruz rushed to help his frightened friend. And he fell in the pond, too. Cruz managed to lift himself out of the water and onto a harder part. He then carefully worked his way toward Anthony, but he fell in the pond again. This time, he couldn’t get out.
The two boys were in icy cold water and quickly losing feeling in their limbs (四肢). Cruz was sure that he was going to die.
Anthony’s older sister had seen the boys fall through the ice and started shouting for help. John Lavin, a neighbor driving nearby on his way to the store, heard her. He quickly pulled over. Seeing the boys, he took a nearby buoy (浮标), kicked off his shoes, and ran into the water. Lavin made his way to Cruz and Anthony and drew them back to land. They were taken to hospital, where doctors discovered that their five-minute stay in the water had lowered their body temperature nearly ten degrees.
Luckily, the boys have fully recovered, though they are still a little awestruck (敬畏的) by their fearless neighbor. “Just to think,” says Cruz, “if he hadn’t been there, I could have died.”
1. Why did the boys go to the frozen pond?| A．They had planned to go skating on the ice for a medal. |
| B．They wondered whether the ice could hold their weight. |
| C．They wanted to have a better understanding at the pond. |
| D．They were curious about what birds there were on the ice. |
| A．they threw a rock to test if the ice was strong enough |
| B．they caught a nearby buoy and kicked off their shoes |
| C．they asked their neighbor who should be the first to go |
| D．they asked Anthony’s older sister to protect them nearby |
| A．He went to find a buoy nearby. | B．He went to his neighbor for help. |
| C．He rushed in to help his friend. | D．He went to ask for his sister’s help. |
| A．A stranger passing by rescued the two boys at last. |
| B．The two boys were very thankful to their neighbor. |
| C．Cruz fell into the pond with Anthony at the same time. |
| D．Anthony’s older sister invited the two boys to the pond. |
6 . How to Revise
Revising is an important part of study. It helps you learn, remember, and apply what you know. It is also a good idea to revise before quizzes and exams. This will help keep materials fresh in your mind.
Find Your Place
To revise for an exam, you must first find a quiet and relaxing environment.
Take Your Time
It’s a good idea to make revising part of your weekly routine(常规).
Stay Organized
It can be very helpful to set up a system so you will be organized.
At the end of every revision, review your notes carefully so that you can be sure that you have understood what you have learned. You may also consider writing out revision cards. You can then use these as a summary(概要)of the subjects that you have studied.
| A．Get Ready |
| B．Check Your Progress |
| C．Here are some tips on how to revise well. |
| D．The best way to do this is to revise every school day. |
| E．Somewhere you feel most comfortable works best. |
| F．Revise your weak subjects more often than the other ones. |
| G．If you are taking notes, organize them by subject, topic, and date. |
7 . How to Do Well in Science Class
Doing well in science depends on developing useful study skills and learning to participate (参与) in class.
Read the required material. When your teacher requires reading from a textbook or a website, take time to read it before you come to class. If you don't have time to read it well, it's a good idea to look quickly at it so that you have an idea of what it's about.
Take clear and organized notes. The notes you take in class will help you know what to study between classes.
Reread your notes after class. If there's anything in your notes that confuses you, or which you feel might be wrong, check with your teacher or a classmate to ensure you have the right information.
| A．It includes doing a good job in laboratories as well. |
| B．Work in a group with others in class. |
| C．Be prepared for the laboratory experiment. |
| D．Recording a lecture will allow you to hear it again. |
| E．It also helps you be prepared to answer questions and have discussions. |
| F．It may help you to rewrite your notes in a better way. |
| G．Don't try to write down everything that the teacher says. |
8 . Putonghua is the official language on the mainland, but if history had played out differently, most of the people could have been speaking Cantonese.
In 1912, shortly after the end of the Qing dynasty, the founding fathers of the republic met to decide which language should be spoken in the new China.
Mandarin - now known as Putonghua - was just a northern dialect spoken by the hated Manchurian officials at that time. While it had served as China’s lingua franca(混合语) for centuries, many saw it as an “impure form” of Chinese.
Many of the leaders, including Sun Yat-sen, were from Guangdong - where people are open to new ideas. A great debate started and eventually led to a formal vote. Cantonese lost out by a small margin to Putonghua and the rest is history.
While historians today still argue about whether this story is real, it is something Guangdong people love to tell. Many Cantonese speakers feel proud of their native language, saying it has more in common with the classical Chinese than Putonghua - which is a mix of northern dialects heavily influenced by Manchurian and Mongolian.
Linguists agree to some degree. “Cantonese is closer to classical Chinese in its pronunciation and some grammar,” Jiang Wenxian, a Chinese language scholar, said. “Using Cantonese to read classical poetry is a real pleasure,” he said. “Many ancient poems don’t rhyme(押韵) when you read them in Putonghua, but they do in Cantonese.”
“Cantonese keeps a flavor of ancient Chinese. Nowadays few people understand classical Chinese, so Cantonese should be protected as a type of language fossil helping us study ancient Chinese culture.” Cantonese is spoken by about 70 million people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and communities abroad.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Guangdong was the only Chinese province allowed to trade directly with foreigners. Many Westerners at the time learned Cantonese. Up till very recently, there were more Cantonese speakers in overseas Chinese communities than Putonghua speakers. In Canada, for example, Cantonese is the third most commonly spoken language after English and French.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the topic. |
| B．To attraction people’s attention. |
| C．To summarize the whole passage. |
| D．To show the importance of Putonghua. |
| A．Most of the leaders are in favor of Putonghua. |
| B．Most of the leaders came from Guangdong at that time. |
| C．Guangdong people are more likely to accept new ideas. |
| D．Sun Yat-sen suggested having a debate to decide on the new language. |
| A．Because it’s as important as Putonghua. |
| B．Because it is an ancient language with a long history. |
| C．Because nowadays few people can understand Cantonese. |
| D．Because it is very helpful when studying Chinese culture. |
| A．New language, New China. |
| B．How Putonghua defeated Cantonese |
| C．The development of an official language |
| D．Cantonese almost became the official language |
9 . How to deal with your homework
Write it down.
Create a homework station. Find somewhere comfortable and quiet to do your homework.
Do homework as early as possible. Don’t leave homework to the last minute.
Treat yourself. You can easily get tired by sitting through an hour or two of homework without stopping. Once you finish homework for a subject, take a small break (no more than 15 minutes). Either taking a walk or finding something to eat will do. But do not turn on the TV, or you’ll never go back to your study.
| A．Use your time wisely. |
| B．Start as soon as you get home. |
| C．Start with your hardest homework. |
| D．Do not burn the midnight oil, either. |
| E．Never do your homework in front of the TV. |
| F．After short breaks, return to finish the rest of your homework. |
| G．Keep a homework notebook where you record all your homework. |
10 . "Long time no see.” is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend’s e-mail, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.
Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal translation (直译) of the Chinese greeting with wrong English grammar! Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too surprised to believe her. Her words were unbelievable at all. So I did research on Google.com. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing “Long time no see.” Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily. Interestingly, if you type this phrase in Microsoft Word, the software will tell you that the grammar needs to be corrected.
Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan’s movies. In the 1930s, Hollywood moviemakers successfully created a worldwide famous Chinese detective (警探) named “Charlie Chan” on wide screens. Detective Chan liked to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. “Long time no see.” was his symbol. Soon after Charlie Chan, “Long time no see.” became a popular expression in America thanks to the popularity of these movies.
Some scholars compare America to a huge melting pot. All kinds of cultures are mixed in the pot together, and they change the color and taste of each other. Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed pot.
You can have some examples from other countries, such as pizza from Italian, sushi from Japanese, and déjà vu from French etc. There is a long list! Since Americans admire Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way, the American’s melting pot keeps adding richness.
1. What did the writer himself feel surprised at?| A．The Chinglish expression “Long time no see.” |
| B．So many literal translations of the expressions used in America. |
| C．“Long time no see.” is used as a standard American English greeting. |
| D．Finding out Americans use the expression every day. |
| A．Confucius’s words. | B．Culture mixture. |
| C．A kind of cooked dish. | D．American changing cultures. |
| A．Detectives translated the phrase “Long time no see.” |
| B．Cultures cannot be changed in the huge melting pot. |
| C．The huge melting pot greatly affects all kinds of languages. |
| D．Hollywood made “Long time no see.” popular. |
| A．American English keeps being enriched by different cultures. |
| B．Americans have a strong interest in Chinese culture. |
| C．Some American expressions can be used in China. |
| D．Some Chinese expressions are introduced into English. |
