1 . 语法填空。

Henry Tyler made the catch of the year on the weekend. When he saw a young child hanging from a sixth-floor apartment balcony (阳台), Henry ran one hundred metres, jumped over a 1. 2-metre fence, and held out his arms to catch the     1     (fall) child.

…

Eric woke up a little later when he heard children playing outside. He pushed a chair onto the balcony, and climbed up     2     (see) them.

2 . We journalists live in a new age of storytelling, with many new multimedia tools. Many young people don’t even realize it’s new. For them, it’s just normal.

This hit home for me as I was sitting with my 2-year-old grandson on a sofa over the Spring Festival holiday. I had brought a children’s book to read. It had simple words and colorful pictures — a perfect match for his age.

Picture this: my grandson sitting on my lap as I hold the book in front so he can see the pictures. As I read, he reaches out and pokes (戳) the page with his finger.

What’s up with that? He just likes the pictures, I thought. Then I turned the page and continued. He poked the page even harder. I nearly dropped the book. I was confused: Is there something wrong with this kid?

Then I realized what was happening. He was actually a stranger to books. His father frequently amused the boy with a tablet computer which was loaded with colorful pictures that come alive when you poke them. He thought my storybook was like that.

Sorry, kid. This book is not part of your high-tech world. It’s an outdated, lifeless thing. An antique, like your grandfather. Well, I may be old, but I’m not hopelessly challenged, digitally speaking. I edit video and produce audio. I use mobile payment. I’ve even built websites.

There’s one notable gap in my new-media experience, however: I’ve spent little time in front of a camera, since I have a face made for radio. But that didn’t stop China Daily from asking me last week to share a personal story for a video project about the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.

Anyway, grandpa is now an internet star — two minutes of fame! I promise not to let it go to my head. But I will make sure my 2-year-old grandson sees it on his tablet.

What do the underlined words “hit home for me” mean in paragraph 2?

A．Provided shelter for me.	B．Became very clear to me.
C．Took the pressure off me.	D．Worked quite well on me.

3 . He was an old man who fished alone in a small boat in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unluck, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty and he always went down to help carry either the fishing lines or the spear. The sail was old and, rolled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.

The old man was very thin with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown spots of the skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The spots ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep scar from handling heavy fish on the thick ropes. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions (侵蚀) in a fishless desert. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.

“Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the boat was pulled up. “I could go with you again. We’ve made some money.”

The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him. :

“No,” the old man said. “You’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them,”

“But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.

“I remember,” the old man said. “I know you did not leave me because you doubted.”

What can we learn about the old man in paragraph 2?

A．He was easy-going and talkative.

B．He was heart-broken and helpless.

C．He was ugly-looking but warm-hearted.

D．He was weather-beaten but strong-willed.

4 . I was with my mom one day as we took a walk while window shopping. We both knew we wouldn't be buying much. I remember I was looking up at the people we passed as we walked. Ladies wore 5-inch heels and bright clothes. Men wore expensive perfumes and creams that wiped away the wrinkles on their faces. An uneasy feeling started to settle in my chest. I could deny it no longer and I was ashamed of my mom.

We were in a high-class neighborhood. We lived in a small, expensive apartment building at the edge of our county. Mom chose to move there because she knew the schools were good. I realized for the first time that we didn't belong there.

I could see the heavy lines around my mom's eyes and mouth. She wore cheap clothes and worn-out shoes. Her eyes were tired from working long hours to make ends meet, and her hair was too gray for her age. She was nothing extraordinary, yet at that moment, she stood out because she was just so plain. I didn't want to be seen with her although there was no one important around to see me anyway. I felt embarrassed about being at her side. We were standing in the middle of a high-end store, and she was holding a sweater.

Mom said, “Anna, this will look good on you. Do you want it?” It Was much too expensive, but I almost thoughtlessly answered “Yes”. Then I took a closer look at the small, tired woman with a big smile and a sweater in her hands, happy to be giving me something so nice. My words died in my throat. Her clothes were worn and old because she spent her money buying me new ones. She looked so tired because she was busy working to provide for me. She didn't wear jewelry or perfumes because she was content with spending what little money she had on me. Suddenly, my mom was beautiful and extraordinarily wonderful in my eyes. I was no longer ashamed of her, but of myself.

“Do you want it?” Mom repeated.

“No, thanks,” I replied.

1. Why did the author describe the passers-by while window-shopping?

A．To stress her mother was plain.

B．To show she envied rich people.

C．To suggest she was curious about others.

D．To indicate she was in an expensive neighborhood.

2. What most likely made the author feel uneasy?

A．Studying at a top school.	B．Going window-shopping.
C．Being seen with her mom.	D．Living in a small apartment.

6 . As Ginni Bazlinton reached Antarctica, she found herself greeted by a group of little Gentoo penguins (企鹅) longing to say hello. These gentle, lovely gatekeepers welcomed her and kick-started what was to be a trip Ginni would never forget.

Ever since her childhood, Ginni, now 71, has had a deep love for travel. Throughout her career (职业) as a professional dancer, she toured in the UK, but always longed to explore further. When she retired from dancing and her sons eventually flew the nest, she decided it was time to take the plunge.

After taking a degree at Chichester University in Related Arts, Ginni began to travel the world, eventually getting work teaching English in Japan and Chile. And it was in Chile she discovered she could get last-minute cheap deals on ships going to Antarctica from the islands off Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the South American mainland. “I just decided I wanted to go,” she says. “I had no idea about what I’d find there and I wasn’t nervous, I just wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it alone as I always prefer it that way.”

In March 2008, Ginni boarded a ship with 48 passengers she’d never met before, to begin the journey towards Antarctica. “From seeing the wildlife to witnessing sunrises, the whole experience was amazing. Antarctica left an impression on me that no other place has,” Ginni says. “I remember the first time I saw a humpback whale; it just rose out of the water like some prehistoric creature and I thought it was smiling at us. You could still hear the operatic sounds it was making underwater.”

The realization that this is a precious land, to be respected by humans, was one of the biggest things that hit home to Ginni.

What is the text mainly about?

A．A childhood dream.	B．An unforgettable experience.
C．Sailing around the world.	D．Meeting animals in Antarctica.

8 . About five weeks ago, I noticed the skin of our pet lizard (蜥蜴) was growing dusty. It worried me. I reported the strange surface on the skin of the lizard to my husband and children the next morning. Seconds later, our lizard emerged from its tank with its old skin flowing behind it.

I didn’t think about it much until a morning last week when I knocked my favorite teapot off the table. It burst into hundreds of pieces. As I swept up the mess, I wondered why we had been breaking so many things over the months.

The destruction started three months ago. It was my husband’s birthday. He had just lost his job. The uncertainty was starting to wear on us, so I wanted to do something special.

“Let’s make a cake for Dad!” I cried.

My kids screamed with joy. We baked, iced and sprinkled for most of the day. Candles on the cake! Balloons on the walls! Flowers on the table!

Two hours before my husband came back home from another job interview, my daughter climbed up to grab a glass vase from a high shelf. It fell and crashed beside the cake. Tiny pieces of glass were everywhere. She sobbed loudly as I threw the cake away. My husband had banana pudding for his birthday.

Three days ago, the light in our living room suddenly went out. After several frustrating hours of unsuccessful attempts to fix it, my husband suggested watching the Michael Jordan documentary (纪录片) series The Last Dance.

The poignancy (酸楚) of Jordan retiring from his beloved basketball to play baseball and what had pushed him to make such a tough decision took me by surprise. As I watched him take off his basketball uniform and replace it with a baseball uniform, I saw him leaving behind the layer that no longer served him, just as our lizard had. Neither of them chose the moment that had transformed them. But they had to live with who they were after everything was different. Just like us. I realized that we have to learn to leave the past behind.

Humans do not shed skin (蜕皮) as easily as other animals. The beginning of change is upsetting. The process is tiring. Damage changes us before we are ready. I see our lizard, raw and nearly new.

Jordan said that no matter how it ends, it starts with hope. With our tender, hopeful skin, that is where we begin.

The underlined part “leaving behind the layer” in Paragraph 8 can be understood as           .

A．letting go of the past

B．looking for a new job

C．getting rid of a bad habit

D．giving up an opportunity

9 . I have worked as a keeper at the National Zoo, Paris for 11 years. Spot and Stripe are the first tiger cubs that have ever been born here. Globally, a third of Sumatran cubs in zoos don't make it to adulthood, so I decided to give them round-the-clock care at home.

I've got two children—the younger one, Kynan, was extremely happy about the tigers arriving - but all of us really looked forward to being part of their lives and watching them grow. I wasn't worried about bringing them into my home with my wife and kids. These were cubs. They weighed about 2.5 kg and were so small that there was absolutely no risk.

As they grew more mobile, we let them move freely around the house during the day, but when we were asleep we had to contain them in a large room, otherwise they'd get up to mischief. We'd come down in the morning to find they'd turned the room upside down, and left it looking like a zoo.

Things quickly got very intense due to the huge amount of energy required to look after them. There were some tough times and I just felt extremely tired. I was grateful that my family was there to help. We had to have a bit of a production line going, making up “tiger milk”, washing baby bottles, and cleaning the floors.

When Spot and Stripe were four months old, they were learning how to open doors and jump fences, and we knew it really was time for them to go. It was hard for us to finally part with them. For the first few days, Kynan was always a bit disappointed that the cubs weren't there.

I'm not sad about it. I'm hands-on with them every day at the zoo, and I do look back very fondly on the time that we had them.

What do the underlined words “get up to mischief” mean in paragraph 3?

A．Behave badly.	B．Lose their way.
C．Sleep soundly.	D．Miss their mom.

10 . I’d worked four months at a university when we had a going-away party for Sandy, who was moving to London. When I got to work the next day, I was ________ to see Sandy there. “Aren’t you supposed to be in London?” I asked. She ________ me and said, “I’m Helen.”

I then found out that I have a rare disease face blindness. This ________ sent me to the doctor. I didn’t think much about it. ________ , I’m a successful adult — who cares if my ________ isn’t quite like everyone else’s? Then, I met Dr Smith. “Your ability to learn new faces is among the worst,” he said. “As for cures, nothing so far has been very ________ .” After a sad goodbye, I fled in tears.

1.

A．excited

B．surprised

C．frightened

D．pleased

2.

A．stared at

B．thought of

C．got away from

D．reached out for

3.

A．disaster

B．accident

C．discovery

D．expectation

4.

A．However

B．Somehow

C．Anyway

D．Moreover

5.

A．illness

B．growth

C．face

D．brain

6.

A．promising

B．popular

C．cheap

D．comfortable