1 . Four new books to read

The books that are included in this list can meet your reading needs at any time of year.

Nobody Will Tell You This but Me

Bess Kalb

In this book, the author shares the advice her beloved grandmother Bobby left her. Bobby was a powerful woman who should never be underestimated, and she was very knowledgeable about the family’s traditions and secrets. The book proves that family bonds can endure through generations and beyond death.

We Came Here to Shine

Susie Orman Schnall

We Came Here to Shine focuses on the strong female friendship between an aspiring journalist and an unlucky actress at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Leaning on each other, these two ambitious women struggled against adversity (困境) at a time when women had little say.

A Star Is Bored

Byron Lane

Favored by television star Jonathan Van Ness, this novel is partly based on the author’s experiences as the former personal assistant to Carrie Fisher, a legendary American actress. The book follows Charlie Besson, the new assistant to the Hollywood icon, Kathi Kannon. Their three-year journey together is an unforgettable adventure that is funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful.

Fast Girls

Elise Hooper

The story in Fast Girls took place during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Betty Robinson, Louise Stokes, and Helen Stephens overcame difficult pasts to attain Olympic glory as the world’s fastest female athletes. Beyond the athletic journey, they also aimed to challenge the social standards of what females can achieve.

1. Who is the character in Bess Kalb’s book?

A．Bobby.

B．Susie Orman Schnall.

C．Carrie Fisher.

D．Betty Robinson.

2. What kind of book is A Star Is Bored?

A．A biography.	B．An industry report.
C．A real-life based novel.	D．A fictional adventure story.

3. Which of the following books will you choose if you are interested in sports?

A．We Came Here to Shine	B．Nobody Will Tell You This but Me
C．A Star Is Bored	D．Fast Girls

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

A boy named Ali had a large and harmonious family, happily living with his sisters, parents and grandmother. His grandmother loved everyone a lot and was respected by all family members. She was very old, but sometimes she would recall things from her past and share with them. Sometimes they would believe her but at other times they would think that Granny might be mixing up the facts due to her old age.

One day, when Ali was in school, suddenly while knitting (编织), Granny remembered something and she couldn’t contain her emotions so she got up to tell her son — Ali’s father. She walked as fast as she could to his room and said, “You always asked about my birth date, but do you know today is the day when I was born?”

She looked at her son with an excited expression, expecting an immediate response. However, her son wondered how she could remember her date of birth in this old age when she forgot so many other things, so he didn’t pay much attention to this. Disappointed at her son’s reaction, Granny then went to Ali’s mother and Ali’s sister, but like Ali’s father, nobody believed her.

Sadly, she went and sat in the terrace (庭院). When Ali returned from his school, he found his grandmother sitting alone with a sad expression. Ali asked his granny about the matter, but she said there was nothing to worry about. After a lot of persuasion she finally told him what was troubling her — nobody seemed to care that it was her birthday today!

After hearing what Granny said, Ali thought of a plan. Purely by chance, some of Ali’s friends were playing nearby so he shared his plan with them.

His friends were all willing to help Ali achieve what he planned.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ali was so happy to see his granny with tears of joy shining in her eyes.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website Book Crossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

Members go on the site and register (登记) the books they own and would like to share. Book Crossing provides an identification number (识别码) to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

Bruce Pederson, the managing director of Book Crossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. Book Crossing combines both.”

Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E— mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

Book Crossing is part of a trend (趋势) among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual (虚拟).The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty—five countries.

1. Why does the author mention book groups in the first paragraph?

A．To explain what they are.	B．To introduce Book Crossing.
C．To stress the importance of reading.	D．To encourage readers to share their ideas.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．An adventure.	B．A public place.
C．The book.	D．The identification number.

3. What will a Book Crosser do with a book after reading it?

A．Keep it safe in his bookcase.	B．Mail it back to its owner.
C．Meet other readers to discuss it.	D．Pass it on to another reader.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Online Reading: A Virtual Tour	B．Electronic Books: A New Trend
C．A Book Group Brings Tradition Back	D．A Website Links People through Books

5 . 假定你是李华，昨天你校邀请了参与扑灭湖南森林大火的消防员代表来学校作报告，请你写一篇报道，内容包括：1.讲座的目的；2. 讲座的内容；3. 同学们的反响
注意：1.写作词数应为80左右；2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . Carbon dioxide emissions from transportation are now thought as the top source of green-house gases. One of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to reconsider how much, and how often, you travel.

Going car free for a year could save about 2. 6 tons of carbon dioxide, according to a study from the University of British Columbia. How can you stop using a car? Try taking a train, bus or better yet, riding a bike.

But let’s be realistic. You will likely need to use a car this year. So, when you do, here are some tips to make your trip more climate-friendly. Driving efficiently can help to reduce emissions. Go easy on the gas and brakes and drive like you have an egg under your foot. Regularly service your car to keep it more efficient. Keeping your tires pumped correctly can re-duce emissions. Low tire pressure will hurt your fuel economy. Air conditioning and frequent city driving can make emissions go up. So cut down on these as often as possible. Use cruise control (定速巡航) on long drives-in most cases, this can help to save gas. Don’t weigh your car down with extra things that you don’t need on your trip.

Fly often? Taking one fewer long round-trip flight could reduce your personal carbon footprint significantly. If you use public transportation often and fly less, your carbon foot-print might still be relatively sustainable, but if you drive and fly a lot, your emissions will be sigher. If you can’t avoid flying, you can offset them by donating money to sustainable proacts, such as supplying efficient stoves to rural homes, or projects which help farmers deal with crop waste environmentally.

1. What does the author think of going car free?

A．Efficient.

B．Costly.

C．Impractical.

D．Reliable.

2. Which can be adopted to save fuel of your car?

A．Maintaining your car properly.	B．Using cruise control in the city.
C．Stepping hard on the gas and brakes.	D．Geiting rid of all the necessary loads.

3. What does the underlined word “offset” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Make up for.

B．Team up with.

C．Set foot in.

D．Put up with.

4. Which is the best title for the text?

A．How to save fuel when driving cars	B．How to reduce your carbon footprint
C．Reduce carbon footprint by all means	D．Lower carbon footprint in transportation

8 . How to become a creative person

Anthony Burrill has been exhibiting his work in galleries across the world for over 15 years, finding inspiration in the most unlikely places. I read his book Make It Now! to discover how I too could develop my creativity.     1    .

       ●Look at the world through fresh eyes

In order to think up new and exciting projects, Burrill lets his mind and his body wander in the world. A walk in a new neighbourhood can give you a different view on your surroundings.     2    “Seeing new things helps generate new ideas,” says Burrill.

       ●Build your creative network

Working alone can be both difficult and boring. Burrill values his creative network as a source of inspiration.     3    .“These people will form the core of your creative community, from which a rich ecosystem of creativity will develop,” says Burrill.

       ●    4    

When Burrill began his career as an artist, he couldn’t afford expensive materials, so he had to find new and inventive ways to make things. “It’s much better to use what you have around you to produce something,” says Burrill.“It’s about being clever with what you have and seeing the benefits in the restrictions you have.”

       ●Remember that conformity(随大流) is the enemy of creativity

    5    . Burrill always keeps in mind that “As soon as you start doing as you are told and following the rules, you stop being truly creative.”He knows that unconventional people are clever and inventive and always try hard to be the “oddball” amongst the crowd.

A．Be resourceful

B．Or you can take a weekend trip

C．Follow these top tips to do the same

D．Allow yourself to create useless things

E．It is essential to maintain your individuality as a creator

F．It is important to be familiar with what’s going on around you

G．His fellow artists teach him new styles and push him to take risks

9 . A happy beagle (小猎犬) called Bella loves Amazon boxes. It tears into them while ignoring other delivery boxes. Little Bit, a tortoiseshell cat, is similarly consumed — but by socks. It raids (偷袭) the laundry basket in the middle of the night and also paws through the open suitcases of house guests, who almost always find themselves missing a sock in the morning. Pets do some pretty weird things. But these strange behaviors often make perfect sense to the pets, said scientists who study animal behaviors. “These behaviors are not invented on the spot,” said Carlo Siracusa, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The pets are doing behaviors that their wild ancestors did, but they’ve changed them a bit to fit their new lives as pets.

Dogs can be trained to roll over and play dead. But their ancient instincts from their wolf ancestors are still there. Instincts, or instinctive behaviors, are behaviors that are done without thinking. They don’t have to be learned. For example, some dogs will scratch the ground after pooping(排便). But they’re not trying to bury their poop. They want other animals to notice it. “They are depositing smell in those areas,” Siracusa said. “It’s almost like drawing a picture with a big red marker around it,” he added.

Cats, on the other hand, almost always bury their waste. “They are covering their tracks,” says Monique Udell, an expert on human-animal interactions who works at Oregon State University. Cats are predators, meaning they hunt other animals for food. But other animals hunt them, too. So they don’t want to be seen-or smelled. Mikel Delgado, the founder of a California-based cat behavior consulting service, said that many other cat behaviors, arise from cats’ wild origins.

While dogs share many behaviors inherited (继承) from wolves, they’ve also developed a few of their own. “Puppy dog eyes”, the innocent look that many humans are helpless to resist, is one. Over the time period that they’ve lived with people, dogs have developed certain muscles around their eyes. This helps them make the adorable expressions that win over humans. Like wolves, dogs also like to lick faces. Humans think their pets are kissing them, but they are not. “It’s how wolf puppies get food from their parents’ mouths,” Siracusa said. “It also can be a sign of submission. When a lower-ranking individual approaches a higher-ranking one, it gets down real low and licks the dominant one to say: ‘I’m not a threat to you.’”

1. What has been done to introduce the topic in Paragraph 1?

A．Telling a story.	B．Making a comparison.
C．Presenting research results.	D．Criticizing pets’ bad behaviors.

2. Which can best replace the word “depositing” in Paragraph 2?

A．leaving

B．hiding

C．removing

D．detecting

3. Which statement summarizes the third paragraph?

A．Cats are interested in burying their waste.

B．Humans like the fact that their pet cats bury their waste.

C．Pet cats bury their waste because their wild ancestors did so.

D．Cats have changed a lot after becoming pets.

4. How do wolves show submission to dominant wolves?

A．Wolves run energetically around dominant wolves.

B．Wolves show dominant wolves “puppy dog eyes”.

C．Wolves beg food from dominant wolves.

D．Wolves lick dominant wolves’ faces.

10 . 假设你是李华，将参加下个月的运动会，尽管你已做了准备，但仍感觉训练不得要领。请你就此给外籍教练Mr. Smith写一封求助信。内容包括：
1. 求助事由；
2. 求助内容；
3. 表达感激
注意：
1、词数80词左右，开头结尾不计入总词数；
2、适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mr. Smith,

I’m Li Hua, a senior 3 student. These days a problem has been bothering me a lot, so I’m writing to ask you for help.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua