1 . In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who held the belief that their self­worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life­and­death affairs. In their single­minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.

However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one's self­respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1. What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Competition helps to set up self­respect.

B．Opinions about competition are different among people.

C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development.

D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition.

2. The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means ________.

A．those who try their best to win

B．those who value competition most highly

C．those who are against competition most strongly

D．those who rely on others most for success

3. What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a “desire to fail”？

A．One's worth lies in his performance compared with others'.

B．One's success in competition needs great efforts.

C．One's achievement is determined by his particular skills.

D．One's success is based on how hard he has tried.

4. Which point of view may the author agree to?

A．Every effort should be paid back.

B．Fear of failure should be removed in competition.

C．Winning should be a life­and­death matter.

D．Competition should be encouraged.

2 . It was _____ he came back from Africa that year _________ he met the girl he would like to marry.

A．when; then

B．not; until

C．not until; that

D．only; when

3 . 短文改错

Su Daoquan, aged 65, was a retired man in Hechuan of Chongqing. He got a lot of attention to local people earlier this month during the first public appearance of his specially invention — a water boat. The opening performance of his pedal boat given on the nearby Fujiang River in front of a crowd of more than 100 onlookers. The pedal boat is 2.6 meters long and 1.4 meters wider. It has empty metal containers on both sides. The pedals are used to turn to a pedal wheel. The driver can ride it in the center or there is room for two other adult. He said that invented it brought him a lot of joy and that our creation is not harming the environment and is suitable for tourism.

4 . 语法填空

From Monday to Friday, most people are busy working or studying, but in the evenings and on weekends they are free to relax and enjoy     1     (they). Some watch TV    2     go to the cinema. Others take part in sports. There are many different ways    3     (spend) their spare time.

Almost everyone has some kind of hobbies. It may be anything from collecting stamps to     4     (make) model airplanes. Some hobbies are expensive,     5     others don’t cost anything at all. Some     6     (collect)are worth a lot of money. Others are valuable only to the owners.

I know    7     man who has a coin collection worth $250. He was very happy about his purchase and     8     (think) the price was reasonable. On the other hand, my youngest brother collects matchboxes. He has almost 600 of them but I doubt if they are worth any money. However, to my brother they are     9     (extreme) valuable. Nothing makes him     10     (happy) than to find a new matchbox for his collection.

This is what a hobby means, I guess. It is something we like to do in our spare time simply for fun. The value in dollars is not important. We do it for the pleasure it gives.

5 . 单词拼写（根据所给汉语或是所给单词完成下列句子，注意使用正确形式）
1. Nowadays, there are a large number of students without jobs to go to after ___________(graduate）.
2. He is trying to___________(保护；提供庇护) his boss from criticism.
3. She ________(掩埋) her face in her hands and wept.
4. Earthquakes are ________(extreme)difficult to predict.
5. I can't __________（表达）to you how grateful I am for your help.
6. Bananas was what I __________ (prefer) when I was a child.
7. Offers of help _________(涌入，流动) into the office when we were facing trouble.
8. According to the weather ________(预告，预测) it will be sunny tomorrow.
9. The earthquake did great ___________(损毁，损失) to the village.
10. The Smiths were __________(trap) in a big fire; luckily they were rescued by brave firefighters.

6 . There was a boy that dreamt of becoming the world’s best violinist. To achieve his life goal, he travelled to a faraway land where the famous and best violinist of all time _______.

The apartment he was directed to was in an old, lonely place. There was no evidence of life at all. The young man was________and turned to leave._________he heard someone coughing from within.

The famous violinist was very old and _______. He refused to teach the young boy, who also refused to_________. The boy played his violin in the yard, and this he did for three nights__________ the old man could not bear it any more. He came out on the fourth night and began to __________the boy. Under his instruction, the________student’s musical skills rapidly improved.

Years passed by. Now the old man asked the boy to ________an important competition. It was the best violin competition in the world. The young man was among hundreds of_________from all over the world. The _________ lasted for days. On the day he played, everyone was deeply ___________. First, the boy was so young, but no violin player could have played _________Second, the boy was focused on one _______ and never looked elsewhere till he finished. Third, tears came down his focused eyes but his _______was not drawn away from the music. He was ___________the winner.

Only the boy knew the________for his success in the competition. _______learning from the best violinist the world ever knew, his teacher had come in person that day to _______him. The old man stood in the dark where he wasn’t _______to anyone around. The old violinist died few days later.

1.

A．performed

B．lived

C．toured

D．lay

2.

A．bored

B．disappointed

C．excited

D．satisfied

3.

A．Still

B．Also

C．Thus

D．Then

4.

A．weak

B．polite

C．kind

D．strict

5.

A．leave

B．talk

C．learn

D．play

6.

A．so

B．unless

C．if

D．till

7.

A．punish

B．persuade

C．beg

D．coach

8.

A．slow

B．gifted

C．kind

D．quiet

9.

A．take part in

B．look forward to

C．stay away from

D．come up with

10.

A．judges

B．students

C．competitors

D．fans

11.

A．program

B．event

C．concert

D．lecture

12.

A．annoyed

B．moved

C．hurt

D．concerned

13.

A．better

B．quicker

C．harder

D．louder

14.

A．book

B．model

C．direction

D．question

15.

A．hand

B．eye

C．interest

D．attention

16.

A．announced

B．known

C．shown

D．predicted

17.

A．prize

B．wish

C．way

D．reason

18.

A．Without

B．Besides

C．Through

D．By

19.

A．find

B．comfort

C．support

D．visit

20.

A．dangerous

B．unfair

C．noticeable

D．particular

7 . A quarter of today’s UK children are living in families which cause more than one risk to their educational development, a study says.

Institute of Education researchers analyzed 10 risk factors affecting more than 18,000 families. Risks included financial stress, teenage parenthood, depression, low skills and alcohol abuse. Previous research suggests families with multiple risk factors are the most damaging. According to the research, just over four in ten people experienced no risk factors in their early childhood, while a third faced only one. It would mean 192.000 UK children born 10 years ago have been growing up in families with multiple risks to their development.

The paper's authors found that those who had grown up with two or more risk factors had poorer behavioral development scores at ages three and five. They also did worse in standard vocabulary tests at these ages. The report, published by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, said. “Children living in families with both multiple risks and low income faced the worst across most developmental outcomes.”

“These children achieved the lowest change in vocabulary test scores between ages three and five.” Professor Dex added. “The most reassuring thing is that if you come into contact with just one of these risk factors, there is a fairly modest effect on children. She suggested that health visitors could be aware of families where there were two or more of these indicators, and offer help. ”

The government has pledged to turn around the lives of England's 120.000 most troubled families by 2015. To qualify for help, the families need to meet five out of seven criteria including truanting (旷课的）children, parents with addiction and anti -social behavior.

1. According to the research, what families are the most damaging to children's educational development?

A．Families with no risk factors.

B．Families with two or more children.

C．Families with two or more risk factors.

D．Families with the only financial stress.

2. What can we learn about the children growing up with multiple risk factors?

A．They didn't care about developmental outcomes.

B．They had poorer behavioral development in high school.

C．They tended to behave better in dealing with different risks.

D．They tended to perform worse in vocabulary tests in their early childhood.

3. The underlined word “pledged” in the last paragraph can be replaced by__________ .

A．promised	B．refused
C．hesitated	D．failed

8 . Saving money while traveling

There are a lot of matters to think on before going out on a trip. If you fail to plan the trip properly, then money will simply let itself loose from your pocket. Moreover, if you haven't planned a road map of your tour, then confusion is quite inevitable (必然的).     1    

Package tours. Tours and travel agencies have attractive offers for tourists wanting to spend a couple of days on trips.     2     Once you have accepted the package tour, all your expenses during the travel will be greatly reduced. You can save a lot in lodging(住宿) and traveling.

Inexpensive lodging.   Never choose expensive lodging if your tour is a low-budget one. People tend to spend a lot booking luxury hotels (豪华旅馆), and save little to enjoy other activities during the trip. This idea is absolutely not wise when spending limited money on the trip is your main aim. Moreover, the expenses increase quickly when your kids are with you.       3    You can use the money saved on good food and amusement.

    4    The peak season is the time when rates are sky high due to the increase of millions of tourists who can afford to spend a lot of money. You, not being amongst this crowd that can spend generously, must book your holidays during the off season.

A guide map. Make a guide map about the places to visit, expenses of travel and the activities to try. While planning you should also estimate (估计) your total expenses. Calculate the maximum amount and try to spend less than that.     5     Refer to the guide map while traveling and follow the money-saving travel tips as much as possible.

A．Reduce shopping.

B．Off season travel.

C．You must keep yourself updated with such offers.

D．This will help you to keep actual expenses below the estimated.

E．You can save lots of dollars when you don't have a credit card.

F．Therefore, book a fairly low-price lodge to save a few dollars.

G．So knowing some money-saving travel tips becomes necessary for you.

9 . Do you know what Fear and Faith have in common? Fear believes in a negative future. Faith believes in a positive future. Both believe in something that has not yet happened. So I ask you, if neither the positive nor negative future has happened yet then why not choose to believe in the positive future?

I believe during these challenging times we have a choice between two roads: the positive road and the negative road. And our bus can’t be on two roads at the same time. So we have to make a choice and this choice determines our belief about the future and the attitude and actions we bring to the present.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have any fear. There are times when fear is a gift. A healthy dose(剂量) of fear causes us to examine our situation and plan for the future. It moves us to smell the cheese and expect change. When used wisely it allows us to manage risk and make better decisions. Some fear is good.

However, what I have observed lately is a supersized, huge dose of fear that is spreading the hearts and minds of far too many people. This oversized fear is causing leaders and their organizations to either act unreasonably or to not act at all. They are either hurrying in a million different directions because of fear. In both cases, fear is leading them to take the negative road to failure.

The answer is the positive road paved (铺满) with faith and a belief that your best days are not behind you but ahead of you. With this belief you make the right choices and actions today that will create your positive future tomorrow. You stay calm, focused and committed to your purpose. You look for ways to save money and cut costs without making unreasonable fear-based decisions that sacrifice your future success. You identify opportunities in the midst of the challenges and you focus on solutions instead of problems.

Your faith and belief in a positive future leads to powerful actions today. The future has not happened yet and you have a say in what it looks like by the way you think and act. Fear or Faith. The choice is yours.

1. According to the passage, we can know that ________.

A．Fear and Faith have nothing in common

B．both Fear and Faith trust something in the future

C．neither negative nor positive future will happen

D．people usually choose to believe in the positive future

2. What does the writer mean by saying “our bus can’t be on two roads”?

A．We usually choose the negative road

B．We should choose the positive road

C．We must choose either a positive or negative road

D．Our belief about the future depends on our choice

3. Which of the following about “Fear” is true?

A．We should have fear because it is a gift.	B．Reasonable fear helps to plan for future.
C．Fear can bring cheese and risk to people.	D．Leaders usually have oversized fear.

4. If we have faith in future, we will ________.

A．have the best days ahead of us	B．be committed to saving money
C．stay away from any challenges	D．take powerful actions today

5. What does the writer intend to tell us in the passage?

A．Fear is closely related to faith.

B．Life is full of fear and faith.

C．We should have faith in a positive future.

D．Wrong decisions sacrifice our future success.

10 . There are millions of used cellphones in the world today，the most of which just lay in our houses without any purpose.Every day dozens of new cellphone models appear.Today，you_can_find_what_was_regarded_as_a_fantasy_yesterday_in_a_store_and_you_will_buy_it_tomorrow.But what to do with the old phones，which work well enough and not so old?

Just get some money! Simply Cellular is buying almost all models of cellphones：LG，Motorola，HP，Siemens，Samsung，Sanyo，Nokia and many others cellphones.Also it accepts phones produced in every country，and in every condition.Simply Cellular can offer a good price for your old cellphone in cash.Their mission is giving you a simple way to get money for your old phone，as simple and profitable(赚钱) as possible.Also they offer a trade­in scheme(折价方案) to get another model instead of your phone，providing a good service after the sale.

Also Simply Cellular works with the so­called 911 cellphone program.So you can donate(捐赠) your cellphone to them to help some people who need it.They know what to do with your old phone! You can be interested in their recycling programs，where every used cellphone could be easily recycled for a few times.Some phones，which are good for refurbish(翻新)，Simply Cellular donates to people who need it，for example women or military personnel.If the refurbish is impossible，they just recycle cellphones.

Just think a minute: it’s a good deal to get some money for your old cellphone，good deal to help somebody with your phone and really important to recycle all techniques after use.Working with Simply Cellular you get every possibility absolutely free.And they will pay to you! That’s a really good deal!

1. When you want a new cellphone，you are advised to ________.

A．keep the old one in house to add your collections

B．throw the old one into the dustbin to protect your health

C．return the old one to the producer to get some money

D．sell the old one to Simply Cellular at a reasonable price

2. The underlined sentence really tells us that______.

A．everyone loves the new and loathes the old (喜新厌旧)

B．people rush to buy what is regarded as a fantasy

C．people are soon able to enjoy what is the most advanced

D．what was a fantasy yesterday will no longer be good for tomorrow

3. Selling a used cellphone to Simply Cellular，you will get________.

A．a good price for the phone in cash

B．another new model without any pay

C．a cost­free service provided by it

D．a profitable plan after the sale

4. This passage is written aiming to ________.

A．warn people of the risks by using cellphones

B．introduce to us what to do with old cellphones

C．advise people not to change cellphones frequently

D．encourage us to keep up with new technologies