An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window.
The father asked his son, “What is this?” The son replied, “This is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this?” The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It’s a crow.”
After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for third time, “What is this?” This time, the son was irritated (生气) and said to his father in a low and cold tone, “It’s a crow, a crow.”
After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, “What is this?” This time his son shouted in his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already, ‘It’s a crow’. Are you not able to understand this?”
A minute later the father went to his room and came back with an old tattered(破旧的) diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the read it, the following words were written in the diary:
“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn’t at all feel annoyed, but instead felt a deep affection for my innocent son.”
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右;2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好;
Paragraph 1:
After reading the diary,the son was in tears and began to reflect on the days when he used to sit together with his father.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Feeling ashamed, the son got down on his knees before his father.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Like all big cities, Paris has a traffic problem: lots of cars, lots of traffic jams and lots of pollution from exhaust fumes (废气). So the city began a scheme (计划) to improve the situation.
Under the Velib project ('Velib' comes from vélo liberté, or 'bicycle freedom') people can take a bicycle, use it for as long as they want, and then leave it at the same or another bicycle station. The first half-hour on the bike is free, but if you don't return it after 30 minutes, you have to pay. But it's only €1 a day or €29 a year! The bicycles are heavy (25 kg), and they are all grey and have baskets. There are about 20,000 of them in the city, and around 1,450 bicycle stations. So there are a lot more Velib stations than the 298 subway stations!
Paris is not the first city to have a project like this. But not everybody thinks it's a great idea. One Parisian said, "These bicycles are only for short journeys. If people want to travel across the city, they won't use a bicycle — they'll still use their cars."
A city spokesman said, 'The bicycle project won't solve all our traffic problems, of course. But it might help reduce air pollution. Traffic, together with factory fumes, is a big problem. There aren't any simple answers to traffic problems and pollution in cities. But unless we do something now, there will be more traffic jams and temperatures will continue to rise, so the problems in our environment will get worse. The bikes might help people to lead a healthier life, too.'
1. What can we learn about the Velib scheme?| A．Its bikes have no baskets. | B．Its bikes are light and colorful. |
| C．It aims to make traveling easier. | D．It owns more stations than the subway. |
| A．€l | B．€30 | C．€29 | D．no money |
| A．The cost is rather high. |
| B．It's hard to find a Velib station. |
| C．It's not suitable for a long journey. |
| D．The distance between two Velib stations is long. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Worried. |
3 . Things You Should Stop Doing to Be Successful
Are you a happy person？ How often do you think of reasons why everyone around you is successful though they are not better than you in general? What do you do wrong? Here are some things you should stop doing to be successful.
•
Different people may interpret “success” in different ways: some of them measure it in money, and other ones in positive changes to people around them and the world in general.
•Do not believe anything without questioning it.
•Do not worry about all unpredictable things that may happen to you.
If you want to be successful, stop thinking about everything that may happen to you.
•Do not care about what other people think of you.
| A．Do not wait for the right time" to do anything. |
| B．Do not let others decide what success" is for you. |
| C．Successful people do not just accept any new information to be true. |
| D．As far as we all know, it's impossible to please all the people who surround us. |
| E．Try to feel comfortable with the reality and accept the fact that your future can’t be predicted. |
| F．If you want to be successful, do not let others force their Interpretation of success on you. |
| G．Successful people never ignore or avoid problems, no matter how big and awful they seem. |
4 . What will our world be like in 2050?
There are two features in the growth of world population. First, the annual increase in population in 15 European countries, in the past few years, has been only 300,000. The United Nations estimates (估计)that by 2050, the population of European countries will decrease from the current 0.72 billion to 0.63 billion. Second, the population in developing countries is growing rapidly. By 2050，the population of Africa is expected to reach 1.8 billion, 0.9 billion more than its current population.
A recent research report published by the United Nations indicates that it is quite possible that the Earth's temperature is rising well above the previous estimate. The Antarctic ice sheet, which contains 90% of the world's ice, has lost significant mass in the past few years. The discovery comes as a surprise to scientists, who thought that the continent would gain ice this century because of increased snowfall in a warming climate. A research team from the University of Colorado used satellite data to estimate that the ice sheet will lose up to 48 cubic miles by 2050.
Africa's rivers face great change that will leave a quarter of the continent severely short of water by the middle of the century, according to a global warming study published today. Even modest decreases in rain in western Africa will see rivers lose as much as 80% of their water and a rise of what the scientists call "water refuges(难民)”. "In those areas where there is already a water shortage, it's going to have a destructive effect," the study says,.“If you're already walking 5 km to the nearest stream, by 2050,it's going to mean walking 30 km or moving your whole household closer to the water source."
1. Which of the following situations in 2050 is NOT mentioned in the text?| A．Population change. |
| B．Economic decline. |
| C．Global warming. |
| D．Water shortage. |
| A．The Antarctic ice sheet has decreased. |
| B．The Earth's temperature is going down. |
| C．Global warming is destroying the Earth. |
| D．Snowfall increases in the Antarctic area. |
| A．The ill fate of Africa's rivers. |
| B．The importance of doing exercise. |
| C．The hard life of the African refugees. |
| D．The seriousness of the water problem. |
| A．Happy. |
| B．Angry. |
| C．Worried. |
| D．Calm. |
5 . Have you ever volunteered for something? Why did you do it? How did you feel when you finished ?
Imagine what a(n)
What is the force
Through volunteering, we make more than just a living with our lives ---we make a
| A．Volunteers | B．Students | C．Doctors | D．Teachers |
| A．respected | B．paid | C．protected | D．founded |
| A．advice | B．proposals | C．chances | D．assistance |
| A．despite | B．if | C．whether | D．unless |
| A．homework | B．exercise | C．job | D．research |
| A．remembered | B．predicted | C．agreed | D．prepared |
| A．also | B．soon | C．occasionally | D．merely |
| A．before | B．yet | C．therefore | D．thus |
| A．organization | B．school | C．hospital | D．country |
| A．belong to | B．look out | C．depend on | D．get around |
| A．more exciting | B．more pleasing | C．less surprising | D．less satisfying |
| A．receiving | B．leaving | C．minding | D．imagining |
| A．behind | B．against | C．without | D．among |
| A．requires | B．shows | C．develops | D．arrests |
| A．challenges | B．allows | C．reminds | D．teaches |
| A．interestingly | B．importantly | C．reasonably | D．successfully |
| A．always | B．sometimes | C．finally | D．seldom |
| A．forbid | B．give | C．achieve | D．expect |
| A．value | B．appreciate | C．gain | D．recognize |
| A．choice | B．decision | C．difference | D．project |
How wrong I was! The misunderstandings(误解) began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Penny a call and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked if he could help me.
“Yes,” I said, “I want to give my friend a ring.”
“Well, that’s nice,” he said. “Are you getting married? But aren’t you a bit（点） young?”
“Who is talking about marriage?” I replied. “I only want to give my friend a ring to tell her I’ve arrived. Can you tell me where there’s a phone box?”
“Oh!” he said, “There’s a phone downstairs.”
When at last we met, Penny explained the misunderstandings to me.
“Don’t worry,” she said to me. “I had so many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from British. You’ll soon get used to all the funny things they say. Most of the time British and American people understand each other!”
1. At first the writer thought _____ in America.
| A．he wouldn’t have any language difficulties |
| B．he would not understand the Americans |
| C．the Americans might not understand him |
| D．it wouldn’t be an easy and relaxing holiday |
| A．means the same in America as in England |
| B．means “call somebody” to the American people. |
| C．has two different meanings |
| D．means “be going to get married” in England |
| A．the old man and the boy | B．the Americans |
| C．the British | D．the French |
| A．Americans use words entirely（完全地） differently from British |
| B．Americans speak in a funny way |
| C．It will be hard for the author（作者） to get used to American English |
| D．Americans and British can understand each other in most cases（情况） |
