1 . The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light, I looked sadly before me at a huge pile of that troublesome stuff they call “books”.
I was going to have my examination the next day. “When can I go to bed?” I asked myself. I didn’t answer. In fact I dared not.
The clock struck twelve.” Oh, !” I cried. “Ten more books to read before I can go to bed!” We pupils are the most wretched creatures in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.
The clock struck one. I was quite desperate(绝望的) now. I forgot all I had learned. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed, “Oh, God, please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards, Amen.” My eyes were so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later, with my head on the desk, I fell asleep.
1. When the author was going over his lessons, all the others in the house were____.

A．asleep

B．outside

C．working in bed

D．quietly laughing at him

2. The underlined word “wretched” in Paragraph 3 probably means____.

A．very happy

B．disappointed

C．very unhappy

D．hopeful

3. Reviewing his lessons didn’t help him because______.

A．it was too late at night

B．he was very tired

C．his eyes lids were so heavy that he couldn’t keep them open

D．he hadn’t studied hard before the examination

4. What do you suppose happened to the author?

A．He went to a church to pray again.	B．He passed the exam by luck.
C．He failed in the exam.	D．He was punished by his teacher.

5. The best title for the passage would be____.

A．The Night Before the Examination	B．Working Far into the Night
C．A Slow Student	D．Going Over My Lessons

2 . In the fall of 1985. I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college an the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic---and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 81. Our home was a complete zoo---a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant talking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, But I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！
I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember；little steps add up to big dreams.
1. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be____.

A．a writer

B．a teacher

C．a judge

D．a doctor

2. Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?

A．She wanted to study by herself.

B．She fell in love and got married.

C．She suffered from a serious illness.

D．She decided to look after her grandma.

3. What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?

A．She was busy yet happy with her family life.

B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.

C．She wanted to remain a full-time housewife.

D．She was too confused to make a correct choice.

4. What dose the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?

A．Failure is the mother of success.

B．Little by little, one goes far.

C．Every coin has two sides.

D．Well begun, half done.

5. Which of the following can best describe the author?

A．Caring and determined.

B．Honest and responsible.

C．Ambitious and sensitive.

D．Innocent and single-minded.

3 . 根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中的两项为多余选项。
There was a park near my home. But I didn’t go there very often. Many people said there was nothing special. One afternoon I went into the park and found it was really small. I walked quickly because there wasn’t much to see. I walked for some time and found myself standing in front of two paths.    1    I found that the two paths were different from each other.
The left one was wide and clean. There were lots of flowers on both sides of the path. Though the flowers weren’t very beautiful, they made me feel good. I decided to take this path. But wait! I looked at the right one. The path didn’t look nice.    2    Grass grew everywhere. For a long time I couldn’t make up my mind.
    3    It wasn’t nice , but I didn’t want to give up. At last, I came to the end of the path. Ah! There was a small garden there. It was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful garden I had ever seen.    4    
Many people told me that there was nothing much to see in the park. Now I’d like to tell them that if they had followed the right way, they would have felt differently. But when I told them about what I had seen in the park, they just smiled at me without saying a word. I knew they didn’t believe me. They couldn’t even remember that path because it was so small.
    5    Don’t be afraid to choose a different path. You may get a big surprise!

A．There is nothing that I want to see.

B．It looked like it had not been cleaned for months.

C．After a while a strange feeling made me follow the dirty path.

D．“ Which way should I go?”   I asked myself. I looked at one way, then the other.

E．I told them what happened.

F．My trip to the park that day made me understand something about life.

G．There were trees, flowers and chairs. I thought it was the nicest part of the park.

4 . Mr. Lang worked in a factory. As a driver, he was busy but he was paid much. His wife was an able woman and did all the housework. When he came back, she took good care of him and he never did anything at home. So he had enough time when he had a holiday. A few friends of his liked gambling (赌博) and he learned it soon. So he was interested in it and forgot anything except gambling. He lost all his money and later he began to sell the television, watches and so on. His wife told him not to do it but he didn’t listen to her. She had to tell the police. He and his friends were punished for it. And he lost his job. After he came out of lockup (拘留所), he hated her very much and the woman had to leave him.
It was New Year’s Day. Mr. Lang didn’t go to work. He felt lonely and wanted to gamble again. He called his friends and they came soon. But they were afraid the police would come. He told his five-year-old son to go to find out if there were the policemen outside. They waited for a long time and didn’t think the police would come and began to gamble. Suddenly opened the door and in came a few policemen.
“I saw there weren’t any policemen outside, daddy,” said the boy, “so I went to the crossing and asked some to come.”
1. Mr. Lang was paid much because _______.

A．he was a driver

B．he worked in a factory

C．he had a lot of work to do

D．he had worked there for a long time

2. Mrs. Lang did all housework because _______.

A．she couldn’t find any work

B．she thought her husband was tired

C．her husband spent all time in gambling

D．she wouldn’t stop her husband gambling

3. _______, so he was put into lockup.

A．Mr. Lang often gambled

B．Mr. Lang was late for work

C．Mr. Lang didn’t help his wife at home

D．Mr. Lang wasn’t polite to the police

4. The woman had to leave Mr. Lang because _______.

A．he didn’t love her any longer

B．he wouldn’t stop gambling

C．he had been put into lockup

D．he was hardly sent away by the factory

5. Which of the following is right?

A．The boy hoped his father to be put into lockup again.

B．The boy thought his father needed some policemen.

C．The boy hoped his father to stop gambling soon.

D．The boy hoped his mother to come back.

5 . It was the summer of 1965. DeLuca, then 17, visited Peter Buck, a family friend. Buck asked Deluca about his plans for the future. “I’m going to college, but I need a way to pay for it,” Deluca recalls saying. “Buck said, ‘you should open a sandwich shop.’ ”
That afternoon, they agreed to be partners. And they set a goal: to open 32 stores in ten years. After doing some research, Buck wrote a check for $ 1,000. DeLuca rented a storefront (店面) in Connecticut, and when they couldn’t cover their start-up costs, Buck kicked in another $1,000.
But business didn’t go smoothly as they expected. DeLuca says, “After six months, we were doing poorly, but we didn’t know how badly, because we didn’t have any financial controls.” All he and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs.
DeLuca was managing the store and going to the University of Bridgeport at the same time. Buck was working at his day job as a nuclear physicist in New York. They’d meet Monday evenings and brainstorm ideas for keeping the business running. “We convinced ourselves to open a second store. We figured we could tell the public, ‘ We are so successful, we are opening a second store.’” And they did — in the spring of 1966. Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error.
But the partners’ learn-as-you-go approach turned out to be their greatest strength. Every Friday, DeLuca would drive around and hand-deliver the checks to pay their suppliers. “It probably took me two and a half hours and it wasn’t necessary but as a result, the suppliers got to know me very well, and the personal relationships established really helped out,” DeLuca says.
And having a goal was also important. “There are so many problems that can get you down. You just have to keep working toward your goal,” DeLuca adds.
DeLuca ended up founding Subway Sandwich, the multi-million-dollar restaurant chain.
1. Deluca opened the first sandwich shop in order to _______.

A．support his family	B．pay for his college education
C．help his partner expand business	D．do some research

2. Which of the following is true of Buck?

A．He put money into the sandwich business.

B．He was a professor of business administration (管理).

C．He was studying at the University of Bridgeport.

D．He rented a storefront for DeLuca.

3. What can we learn about their first shop?

A．It stood at an unfavorable place.

B．It lowered the prices to promote sales.

C．It made no profits due to poor management.

D．It lacked control over the quality of sandwiches.

4. They decided to open a second store because they _______.

A．had enough money to do it

B．had succeeded in their business

C．wished to meet the increasing demand of customers

D．wanted to make believe that they were successful

5. What contributes most to their success according to the author?

A．Learning by trial and error.	B．Making friends with suppliers.
C．Finding a good partner.	D．Opening chain stores.

6 . When my first wartime Christmas came, I was in basic training in New Jersey and not sure if I would make it home for the holidays. Only on the afternoon of December 23 was the list of men who would have the three-day holiday posted. I was one of the lucky soldiers. It was Christmas Eve when I arrived home, and a little snow had fallen. Mother opened the front door. I could see beyond her, into the corner of the living room where the tree had always stood. There were lights, all colors, and ornaments (饰品) shining against the green of a pine.
"Where did it come from?" I asked.
"I asked the Gates boy to cut it," my mother said. "I wouldn't have had one just for myself, but when in great need... such a rush! He just brought it in this afternoon."
The pine reached to the proper height, almost to the ceiling, and the Tree Top Crystal（水晶） Star was in its place. A few green branches reached out a little awkwardly（难看） at the side, I thought, and there was a bit of bare trunk showing in the middle. But the tree filled the room with warm light and the whole house with the pleasant smell of Christmas.
"It's not like the one you used to find," my mother went on. "Yours were always in good shape. I suppose the Gates boy didn't know where to look for a better one. But I couldn't be fussy(挑剔的)."
"Don't worry," I told her. "It's perfect."
It wasn't, of course, but at the moment I realized something for the first time: All Christmas trees are perfect.
1. What did his mother's Christmas tree look like?

A．

B．

C．

D．

2. From the passage we can infer (推断) that ______.

A．all the soldiers had the three-day holiday

B．the writer could not go home for Christmas

C．the writer spent his first Christmas during the war

D．not all the soldiers went home for Christmas during the war

3. From the passage, we can conclude that ______

A．his mother didn't like Christmas trees

B．the writer didn't like the tree cut by someone else

C．the writer used to cut very beautiful Christmas trees

D．his mother didn't want to have a Christmas tree during wartime

4. The best title for this passage would be ______

A．The Perfect Christmas Tree

B．How to Choose a Christmas Tree

C．How Soldiers Spent Their Christmas

D．A Christmas with an Ugly Christmas Tree

5. What’s the writer mean by saying “All Christmas trees are perfect”?

A．Nothing is as perfect as Christmas.

B．Once at home, everything is so nice.

C．During the war, trees are hard to find.

D．All Christmas trees are the most beautiful.

7 . 语法填空

Chinese proverbs(谚语) are rich and they are still     1     (wide) used in Chinese people’s daily life.     2     these proverbs there are often interesting stories. For example, the proverb, “plucking up a crop to help it grow”,     3     (base) on the following story.

It is said that a short-tempered man in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) was very anxious to help     4     rice crop grow up quickly. He was thinking about     5    day and night. But the crop was growing much slower than he expected.

One day, he came up with an idea     6     he would pluck up all of his crop a few inches. He did so the next day.

He was very tired from doing this for a whole day,     7     he felt very happy since the crop did “grow”     8     (high).

His son heard about this and went to see the crop. Unfortunately, the leaves of the crop began to wither.

This proverb is saying we have to let things go in their     9     (nature) course. Being too anxious to help an event develop often     10     (result) in the contrary to our intention.

8 . It doesn’t matter when or how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought, until they heard about Al Herpin. Al Herpin, it was said, never slept. Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.

Al Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised. Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day, they never saw Herpin sleeping. In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.

The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They asked him many questions, hoping to find an answer. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure.

Al Herpin died at the age of 95.
1. The main idea of this passage is that _______.

A．everyone needs some sleep to stay alive

B．people can live longer by trying not to sleep

C．large numbers of people do not need sleep

D．a person was found who actually didn’t need any sleep

2. The doctors came to visit Herpin, expecting ______.

A．to find out whether his sleeplessness was really true

B．to find out why some old people didn't need any sleep

C．to find a way to free people from the need of sleeping

D．to cure him of his sleeplessness

3. After watching him closely, the doctors came to believe that Al Herpin ____.

A．needed no sleep at all	B．needed some kind of sleep
C．was too old to need any sleep	D．often slept in a chair

4. One reason that might explain Herpin’s sleeplessness was ______.

A．his mother's injury before he was born

B．his magnificent physical condition

C．that he had gradually got rid of the sleeping habit

D．that he hadn’t got a bed

5. Al Herpin’s condition could be regarded as ______.

A．a common one	B．very healthy
C．one that could be cured	D．a rare one