1 . When I was seven years old, my family made me an ant farm. First, we put clean sand in a thin glass box. Then we waited for the ants to arrive. After the ants were in the glass farm, they started to make tunnels (地道). I was amazed that each one knew exactly what to do. Each had its own job.

On the fifth day a tragedy (悲剧) happened. I put my face so close to the glass farm that I knocked it over. All the tunnels fell down. Although the ants remained alive after their earthquake, one by one they began to die. I was scared as I watched them give up building their tunnels to carry the bodies to a corner of the farm. My mother said that the ants were dying of sadness. They simply could not stand that their tunnels were gone.

Although much time has passed, I still think of that ant farm. Mom had hoped it would teach me about the natural world, but it taught me much more.

Over the years, I came to realize the importance of teamwork. Working together, the ants were able to make an amazing world for themselves. I also learned that they should be admired for their hard work.

But there was an even larger lesson that I did not realize until recently: Adversity (逆境) is a natural part of life, and must be accepted. Unlike the ants, we cannot give up when we are sad. We have to realize that if a tunnel is gone, we must build another.

Giving up, I say, is not a good choice.

1. What did the writer’s family do for him when he was seven?

A．They built a farm of ants.	B．They bought a few ants.
C．They caught a lot of ants.	D．They found an ant city.

2. Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The writer broke the glass box because it made his face dirty.

B．The ants died one by one because the tunnels were destroyed.

C．Unlike people, teamwork is not so important for the ants.

D．Giving up is a good way when we meet trouble.

3. The underlined word “teamwork” in the passage means_____.

A．a series of work	B．a group of members work together
C．hard work	D．work for long hours

4. What did the writer learn from the ant tragedy a few years later?

A．Working together is useless.	B．Teamwork is important.
C．He can’t accept adversity.	D．Working alone is amazing.

5. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Ants Fear Adversity	B．My Family and Ants
C．Giving Up in Adversity	D．A Good Lesson from Ants

3 . 语法填空

My friend Tony and I always walk hoe together after school. Last Monday, however, something happened     1     our way back.

We were walking that day when we heard     2     loud cry behind us. Looking around, we were     3     (surprise) to see a woman lying on the ground. It seemed that she was     4     (injure) badly. We hurried to her,    5     a man came over to stop us from     6     (help) the woman. Some     7     (girl) walking by even laughed at us. We got very angry with the people     8     were cold to the woman. Then the man     9     (ask) us to turn around to see a man carrying a video camera on     10     (he) shoulder. They were just making a film!

4 . Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next to ours was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there and whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing (缝纫) and reading.

After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “Why doesn’t that woman clean her window? It really looks terrible.”

One morning I decided to clean my apartment, including cleaning the window. Late in the afternoon I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly seen. Her window was clean!

Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.

That was quite an important lesson for me. From then on, whenever I want to judge (判断) someone, I ask myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I can see others’ world more clearly.

1. The writer couldn’t see anything clearly through the window because          .

A．the woman’s window was dirty

B．the writer’s window was dirty

C．the woman lived far away

D．the writer was near-sighted

2. After the writer finished the cleaning, he was surprised to find that        .

A．the woman was sitting by her window	B．the woman’s window was still terrible
C．the woman was cleaning her window	D．the woman’s window was clean

3. The writer felt ________ when he knew whose window was dirty

A．angry

B．surprised

C．funny

D．strange

4. The underlined part “it dawned on me ” probably means “________ ”.

A．I began to understand it	B．it cheered me up
C．I could see myself through the window	D．it began to get light

5. From the passage we can learn that         .

A．one shouldn’t criticize others very often

B．one should often keep his windows clean

C．one should judge himself before he judges others

D．one should look at others through his dirty window

5 . Lisa never had the chance to know her father. He and her mother divorced when she was just a young child. Even though he didn’t move far, he never came to visit his children.

Lisa often wondered about her father. What did he looked like and what he was doing. All she knew was his name: Jeff White.

After Lisa grew up she became a nurse at a hospital where she would help provide medicine and comfort for patients in their final days. A few weeks ago she received a new patient whose name was Jeff White.

When Jeff came into his room Lisa asked him if he had any children. Jeff told her that he had two daughters, Lisa and Emily. Lisa couldn’t hold her tears back. She told him, “I am Lisa, your daughter.”

Jeff embraced her, saying that he was not a good father. And the daughter held his hand and kissed him. Then Jeff began to sing This Magic Moment.

Jeff could have just weeks left to live, so Lisa wanted to make the most of the time she had with him. Lisa also brought her kids to the hospital to meet their grandfather. The kid made cards for him with the words, “I love you.”

Forgiveness is also a kind of love.

1. What happened to Lisa when she was young?

A．Her father lost his job.	B．Her mother died.
C．Her family moved to another country.	D．Her father left the family.

2. What did Lisa know about her father?

A．Her father’s looks.	B．Her father’s name.
C．Her father’s hobby.	D．Her father’s job.

3. What does the underlined word “patients” mean in this passage?

A．Doctor.

B．Sick people.

C．Family.

D．Operation.

4. From the passage we know that        .

A．Lisa has a brother	B．Lisa hates his father
C．Lisa has a sister	D．Lisa’s father hates her daughter

5. This passage mainly tells us that         

A．kids should love their father	B．the father should love his kids
C．forgiveness is also a kind of love	D．fathers shouldn’t leave their families

6 . Mrs. Ball had a son. His name was Mick. She _______ him very much and as he was not a _______ child, she was always afraid that he might be ill, so she used to take him to see the best _______ in the town four times a year to be _______.

During one of these years, the doctor gave Mick all kinds of tests and then said to him, “Have you had any _______ with your nose or ears recently?” Mick _______ for a second and then answered, “Yes, I have.”

Mrs. Ball was very _______. “But I’m sure you have never told me that, Mick!” She said worriedly. “Oh, really?” Said the doctor _______. “And what trouble have you with your nose and ears, my boy?” “Well,” answered Mick, “I always have trouble with them when I’m _______ my sweater off, because the ________ is very tight.”

1.

A．loved

B．hated

C．missed

D．cared

2.

A．rich

B．clever

C．strong

D．happy

3.

A．player

B．teacher

C．doctor

D．lawyer

4.

A．looked round

B．looked over

C．looked for

D．looked after

5.

A．answer

B．thing

C．word

D．trouble

6.

A．thought

B．waited

C．stood

D．looked

7.

A．excited

B．interested

C．pleased

D．surprised

8.

A．angrily

B．seriously

C．happily

D．carefully

9.

A．turning

B．taking

C．keeping

D．putting

10.

A．collar

B．nose

C．mouth

D．ear

7 . Jeff was diagnosed in 2010 with multiple myeloma (多发性骨髓瘤). It is a disease that is usually noticed when grandpa falls and breaks his hip. The average patient is in his early 70s. But Jeff was only 50 when diagnosed.

“I wondered why me, as a young guy?” Jeff says. But his relative youth and good health has put him in a position to fight the disease in his way.

In January Jeff and his wife Ramona will join a team climbing to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness and funds for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. It’s an adventure he’s dreamed about since the 4th grade.

Jeff will be one of four in the group who are myeloma patients not willing to be threatened by cancer. He and Ramona have raised nearly $18,000 toward their combined goal of $20,000.

Still, he’s confident that his earlier marathon training has prepared him to climb the highest free-standing mountain in the world. “I just have to deal with it and understand my limitations.” he says.

What Jeff sees is a clear future. “Having cancer narrows the focus about what we want to do and who we want to do it with.” he says. He and Ramona now ask themselves, “How do we go out and live the most fulfilling lives? Who are the most important people in our lives? What brings us joy?”

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is their next adventure, but Jeff knows it won’t be just a personal accomplishment. “I do these things for all the people who can’t.” he says.

Jeff is certain that his passion for hiking and adventure will take him to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and that his story will inspire those with multiple myeloma to keep sight of who they are beyond their diagnosis.

“It’s obvious to me,” he says, “that this is part of my fate.”
1. What’s the main purpose for Jeff and his wife to climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro?

A．To get enough physical training to be stronger.

B．To show love for climbing high mountains.

C．To express determination to overcome the disease.

D．To raise awareness and money for the organization.

2. What’s Jeff’s attitude towards his disease?

A．Worried

B．Optimistic

C．Favorable

D．Indifferent

3. What’s the best title for the text?

A．Part of fate.	B．Power of willingness.
C．Love for adventure.	D．An unusual disease.

8 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

I have a fifteen-year-old son. He    1     (be) a perfect boy. I love my son with all my heart.

Last summer he worked to earn money for his new bicycle instead of     2     (ask) money from me. Then he spent hours and hours on it. Later I bought him a pair    3    glasses and gloves. My son rode the bicycle with the glasses and the gloves, and he looked so cool. He dreamed of taking part in a race and winning.

On November 10, my birthday, when I went to the kitchen to start the milk and bread in the morning, I     4     (notice) a beautiful guitar on the table, beside which was a card. It said, “Happy birthday to my    5     (wonder) mother, all my love, your son.” I was very    6    (surprise) and then began to sob (抽泣). I remembered once I joked to my family that I wished    7     (learn) to play the guitar to make my life more colorful. I had forgotten it, but my son remembered. He took it    8     (serious), and bought one for me as my birthday gift. When I wondered     9     my son could buy this expensive gift, I realized that my son sold his bicycle to get me     10     guitar.

9 . 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。

I’d been bored by everything associated with English courses and the idea of being a writer had never come to me until in my third year in high school when our English class was taken over by Mr. Fleagle. Mr. Fleagle was said to be very formal, dull, prim (古板的) and hopelessly out of date. He wore primly severe glasses; his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that he seemed a comic antique (古董).

I prepared for another unfruitful year without enjoyment in that dull subject with Mr. Fleagle. I found English grammar dull and difficult. I hated the assignments to turn out long, lifeless paragraphs that were painful for teachers to read and for me to write.

Late in the year, Mr. Fleagle handed out a homework sheet offering us a list of topics. None was quite so simple-minded as “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” but most seemed to be almost as boring as I had expected. I took the list home and did nothing until the night before the essay was due. Lying on the sofa, I finally faced up to the unwelcome task, took the list out of my notebook, and scanned it.

Then my eyes stopped on the topic “The Art of Eating Spaghetti.” Vivid memories came flooding back of a night in Belleville when all of us—Uncle Allen, my mother, my father and my cousin Doris were seated and Aunt Pat served spaghetti for supper which was still a little known foreign dish in those days. Neither Doris nor I had ever eaten spaghetti, and none of the adults had enough experience to be good at it. However, it was a night that I would never forget.

注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:

Suddenly I wanted to write about that, about the warmth and good feeling of that night.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

Two days later the graded articles were returned.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . Xie Jun is a middle school student, studying in Grade 8 in a middle school in Changsha, Hunan. He has had lots of _________ since he was little. But as time goes by, there is only one dream still in his mind.

When he was a child, he heard of rockets and spaceships. _________, he didn’t know what they were. From his father, he started to know that scientists make _________ to carry people and things into space. From then on, he became very interested _________ space. Every time he sees beautiful stars and the moon in the sky at night, he gets very excited. He is always dreaming that he can fly to space to _________ the Earth one day.

Xie learned that the first man flew into space in 1961, and later, _________ astronauts made it successful to travel into space. Some even landed on the moon. He knows not _________ can travel into space. More importantly, _________ he can fly to space, he must be trained specially.

Xie knows it’s not easy to realize his dream, but he decides to try _________ best. He says, “I’ve had this dream for many years. It brings me a lot of __________ and always makes me study harder.”

1.

A．jobs

B．dreams

C．friends

D．teachers

2.

A．Such as

B．Of course

C．At first

D．At last

3.

A．trains

B．bikes

C．cars

D．rockets

4.

A．in

B．on

C．of

D．about

5.

A．take up

B．look up

C．arrive at

D．look at

6.

A．fewer

B．stronger

C．more

D．worse

7.

A．everyone

B．anyone

C．someone

D．none

8.

A．when

B．before

C．after

D．as

9.

A．her

B．his

C．my

D．their

10.

A．happiness

B．benefit

C．health

D．favour