1 . My family was first introduced to Shirley Hughes when we visited a 50-year-old private library in Bangkok, where there are many of Hughes’s books. Hughes’s children’s books immediately stand out from the rest. Every single page presents a work of impressive artistic quality. In an age when many children’s books rely on cheap computer graphics(绘图)，it’s refreshing to discover an illustrator who obviously labored, with deep attention to detail, over every page.

It’s not just the illustrative talent and distinctive style, using pen and ink and watercolor to “fill ordinary domestic scenes with a mixture of magic”, that sets Hughes’s works apart. She was also an expert storyteller. That’s not because her stories are particularly imaginative. Rather, perhaps, it’s the simplicity and normality of the stories that make them so pleasing to kids and parents alike.

Take Dogger, one of Hughes’s earlier books, published in 1977, which sold millions of copies and won Britain’s Kate Greenaway Medal. Dogger is the story of Dave, a young boy who loses his beloved stuffed dog named Dogger. Much of what makes Dogger and the rest of Hughes’s books so engaging is that the stories are told from the perspective of the child encountering everyday events. Hughes has a special skill for drawing wonder out of what we often assume to be boring and uninteresting.

Though I have a graduate degree in education, I never would have expected my children to love these stories. My best guess is that it is because Hughes’s books talk to them about the kinds of things they witness and experience daily. By extension, these books tell them in reassuring tones that, yes, their little world with all of its people and curiosities is quite interesting indeed.

Perhaps much of the reason I’ve so taken to reading Shirley Hughes to my own children is that it reminds me of what the world looked like when I too was a little boy.

1. What is a special characteristic of Hughes’s children’s books?

A．They make good use of computer graphics.

B．They focus on presenting the writer’s skills.

C．They are attractively illustrated.

D．They are full of magic events.

2. What do we know about Dogger?

A．It is Hughes’s first book.	B．It has a plain and usual story.
C．It is told from Dogger’s perspective.	D．It attracts readers for its fancy style.

3. Why does the author like Hughes’s books so much?

A．They provide stories the author relates to deeply.

B．They are mostly based on Hughes’s experiences.

C．They are a loving record of the author’s childhood.

D．They strengthen the bond between the author and his children.

4. What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To make an advertisement for a book.

B．To present how children’s books should be written.

C．To analyze what kind of stories pleases readers.

D．To explain why a writer’s books are popular.

2 . 假如你是学生李华，请你代表学校给外教Smith先生写一封信，邀请他参加在11月12日到16日举办的校科技艺术节(Tech Art Festival)的开幕式。
Dear Mr. Smith,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

3 . 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。

A young woman without eyebrows is seated in front of a beautiful landscape. Does this sound familiar     1     you? This is one of the most famous works     2     (paint) by Leonardo da Vinci. Different theories     3     (produce) about her identity in the past hundreds years. Many art and history buffs thought that it was a portrait of da Vinci himself, but as a woman. Some thought it was not any particular person,     4     the ideal of a woman. They say this is     5     she was painted with no eyebrows. However,     6     thought that it was a portrait of an actual woman of the time, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. In 2005, historian Armin Schlechter of Heidelberg discovered the answer. While     7     (look) through an old manuscript, he found a small note. In this, the woman in the Mona Lisa was     8       (positive) identified as Lisa del Giocondo. The artist had been paid     9     (draw) her portrait after the birth of her second child. “Mona,” in fact, means “madam” in Italian. As for her mysterious look?     10     (historian) say women of that time liked to remove their eyebrows. Apparently, they thought eyebrows were not attractive.

4 . Short Naps Have Major Benefits for Your Mind

For a time, research was both for and against napping. Many studies showed mood and cognition benefits from midday rest,     1     That left some experts hesitant to offer advice on naps. More recent research, though, has clarified that different types of naps have different effects. A number of scientists now think the sweet spot is about 20 to 30 minutes.

Short naps do indeed have cognitive benefits, especially significant improvements in certain kinds of memory and information-processing speed.     2     No one talks about mood enough, but, tired people tend to be angry people.

    3     Even a short, 10-minute nap will refresh a person. If someone does a little longer, the cognitive benefits last a little bit longer as well, and that’s why half an hour, give or take a bit, has emerged as a good nap span.

Cognitive benefits do show up after naps that extend past 30 minutes, and those benefits last longer.     4     Even though the unevenness can pass relatively quickly and not everyone gets it, many people find it unpleasant.

Longer naps are also associated with some health problems. Those who napped for more than 30 minutes at a time were 23 percent more likely to be obese than those who didn’t nap at all. They were also more likely to have a combination of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other health issues.     5    

A．and that makes it easier to wake up.

B．It doesn’t take much sleep to see these improvements.

C．A nap also simply makes many people feel better.

D．But it is probably a disease that causes the extra napping.

E．yet others found links to poor health, especially in older adults.

F．In addition, long naps reduce the body’s ability to lose fat on a diet.

G．But longer naps let a person increase uneven feeling on waking.

5 . Art is a universal language. Music is a universal language. Love is a universal language. Now, it’s the turn of sand to be mentioned in such terms. In her work, sand artist Kseniya Simonova mixes art, music and love to create her own medium which can be understood and appreciated by everyone.

According to Simonova, she fell in love with sand art “absolutely accidentally.” Her husband, a theatre director, advised her to give it a try. “I never thought I could perform; I was always a classical artist,” reveals Simonova. “I just started it as a hobby and I never thought it would turn out to be what it is now.” In 2009, Simonova won the “Ukraine’s Got Talent” TV contest. Since then her fame has skyrocketed, and she has become a real sensation (引起轰动的人).

The art Simonova creates is magical; however, the medium she uses is quite common. “It is ordinary river sand. There was a time when I did use the volcanic one, but actually it makes no difference,” says Simonova. “In sand art it is an idea and its visualisation that matters. What I do is create a theatre in my mind. The sand is a very convenient medium that is very flexible and responds to speed well. It can show what is going on in my head.”

The images created by the artist live only for a few seconds. However, Simonova is not in any way alarmed by the momentary aspect of sand art. “I know that my creations exist only for a while, but I believe that to be absolutely normal because art mirrors life. We live every moment of our life, but it’s not possible to repeat those. The same is the case with what I do,” Simonova concludes.

Sand art helps the artist to see the world in a new way, painting ever-changing life in every grain of sand.

1. How does Simonova feel about her achievements in sand art initially?

A．Confident.

B．Amused.

C．Confused.

D．Surprised.

2. What is important in sand art performance according to Simonova?

A．The medium.

B．The story.

C．The theatre.

D．The audience’s response.

3. What does Simonova say about the momentary nature of sand art?

A．It reflects our life.	B．It is a kind of regret.
C．It encourages repetition.	D．It alarms many sand artists.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Love: a universal language

B．Sand art: a new form of performance

C．Kseniya Simonova: painting the world with sand

D．Sand artists: impressing the world with awesome work

6 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What happened in 1926?

A．Langston Hughes was elected as the class poet.

B．Langston Hughes wrote The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

C．Langston’s first poetry came out.

2. When did Langston Hughes publish Black Nativity?

A．In 1961.

B．In 1951.

C．In 1941.

3. Where did Langston Hughes settle down after many travels?

A．In the US.

B．In Japan.

C．In Haiti.

7 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. How many candidates are the speakers going to meet?

A．20.

B．12.

C．2.

2. What makes the man surprised?

A．The candidates’ language skills.

B．The number of job applicants.

C．The experience of employees.

3. What do the speakers talk about at the end of the conversations?

A．Candidtates’ background.

B．Job description.

C．Interview procedure.

8 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What is the newcomer’s position in the company?

A．He is a department head.

B．He is a film director.

C．He is a program manager.

2. Who is the newcomer?

A．Liam Neeson.

B．David Cook.

C．Joey Sanders.

9 . Inspirational ideas have a habit of striking in the most unforeseen places. For example, dreams operate on the level of stories, making them primary sources of ideas and inspirations. The following are four great ideas created from dreams.

Elias Howe’s sewing machine

In 1895, Elias Howe was struggling with the needle (针) design. One night, he had a dream that some people on an unknown island caught him and were preparing to turn him into a meal. They were dancing around waving their spears (矛) in the air, and then he saw it. The spears had holes at the tip. It helped him solve his problem.

Einstein’s theory of relativity

In his dream , Albert Einstein was talking to a farmer who was telling him about the fenced (被围住的) cows. However, the farmer saw something different from him. When waking up, he realized that a similar event could be different from a different point of view. Through this, the theory of relativity slowly began to fall into place.

Beatles’hit song Yesterday

Yesterday by the famous band Beatles is one of the most covered songs in history . It all came to one of the band members, Paul McCartney, in a dream. One night in 1963 he suddenly woke up with a tune (曲调) in his head. He got up and started playing the notes until the song came into being.

The periodic table

While in his mid - thirties, Dmitri Mendeleev, a known Russian chemist, was struggling to place 56 known elements on a periodic table. Then one night in a dream, he saw a table where all aspects fell into place as called for. When he woke up, he wrote it down on a piece of paper.

1. What inspired Elias Howe to design the needle of sewing machines ?

A．Spears with holes at the tip.	B．A big meal he had in his dream.
C．A talk with the people trapping him.	D．The dancing moves of some strangers.

2. Which of the following was inspired by a dream which included a farmer ?

A．The sewing machine.	B．The theory of relativity.
C．The song Yesterday.	D．The periodic table.

3. What can be inferred from the four stories ?

A．A dream can be a wish that your heart makes.

B．Common people can also have great creations.

C．Clever minds never stop thinking in their lives.

D．Great ideas sometimes arise in an unexpected way.

10 . 听下面一段对白，回答以下小题
1. How much is the ticket to the Ocean Park?

A．£ 2.00.

B．£ 6.50.

C．£ 8.50.

2. What is unavailable during the trip?

A．Lunch.

B．Water.

C．Fruit.

3. What will the listeners do at 2:30 next Tuesday?

A．Listen to a talk.

B．Do some worksheets.

C．Watch the sharks being fed.

4. What is the topic of the talk for next Tuesday?

A．The ocean.

B．Sharks.

C．Penguins.