1 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My parents grew up poor. But as a family, we were comfortable, though we didn’t have much what would be considered luxuries. One year, my father went on a trip to Italy and brought my mother an opal ring. It was her favorite stone, and she cherished that ring. It represented Dad’s love for her.

Dad died at the age of 53 in 1980 after a grueling battle with cancer. Mom was working at Burlington Coat Factory Department store. She usually wore the ring to work. Over the years, the ring became impossible for my Mom to wear because of her swollen knuckles (指关节). I had the ring fitted with a clasp so that Mom could wear it again. She took great pride in the frequent compliments as she got on that ring.

One day during her shift, the ring slipped off. She didn’t realize it until the following day. Mom was sad. The ring did not have a high monetary value, but it meant as much to her as life itself. I decided to go and look for it.

I encountered Chloe, one of my Mom’s co-workers at my Mom’s workplace. She led me to the store where Mom worked, and then left. It was packed with clothes, racks and tables. I started row by row crawling on the floor to see if I could find the ring underneath all the clothes. When I got to the last row and hadn’t found the ring, the thought occurred to me that it might have fallen into the pocket of a coat as my Mom was hanging or rearranging the clothes. I started feeling around in the pockets of some of the coats, but quickly abandoned. There were at least 20,000 pieces of clothing in that department. The attempt seemed useless.

注意：续写的词数应为150左右;

I stood by a small table in disappointment when Chloe came in.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I called my Mom and now I was choking back tears.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 .

I grew up hearing that it is better to give than to receive, and the older I get, the more I aim to take this message to heart. Nevertheless, here I am, in the midst of the holiday season stressed out about gifts I have not yet purchased.

How did gift buying become an emotionally fraught chore (苦差事)? For a moment, it’s easy to question if it’s worth it. But science tells me that giving makes us feel good.

“The act of giving actually does improve your happiness,” says Michael Norton, a psychologist at Harvard Business School. He has published several studies on the effects of giving.

In one experiment that included about 700 people, the researchers randomly assigned participants to make either a purchase for themselves, or for a stranger. Afterwards, the participants reported how happy they felt. Turns out, giving to others led to a significant happiness boost, whereas spending on oneself didn’t move the needle.

“If you take $5 out of your pocket today, the science really does show that spending $5 on yourself doesn’t do much for you,” Norton says. “But spending that $5 on somebody else is more likely to increase your happiness.”

Take a scarf. If you buy one for yourself, it’s just another thing you don’t necessarily need. But if you buy a scarf for someone else, “you’ve shown them that they’re important to you,” Norton says. Either way, it’s just a scarf. “But it can either be a throwaway object or something that enhances a relationship between two people,” he says.

So, there’s evidence that generosity promotes happiness, but the process of shopping, wrapping and schlepping (搬) gifts can be tiresome — or even extremely annoying considering all of our day-­to­-day demands and other holiday stressors.

Studies also show when people are given something they are more likely to give back. Reciprocity (互惠) is a foundation of good relationships and when we surround ourselves with generous people, we tend to feel the same. Feeling that spirit of giving and the connection it can bring is what the holidays are all about.

1. Why does the author mention his own experience in paragraph 1?

A．To make a prediction.	B．To introduce the topic.
C．To present a reason.	D．To clarify a concept.

2. How does Norton illustrate his opinion in paragraphs 5 and 6?

A．By listing data.	B．By giving examples.
C．By making comments.	D．By telling personal experiences.

3. Why is preparing a gift sometimes an emotionally fraught chore?

A．It’s difficult and expensive.	B．It happens frequently.
C．It’s not valued by others.	D．It requires much effort.

4. What can we learn about giving gifts from the text?

A．It is not worth the effort.

B．It is a must to enhance a relationship.

C．It brings about emotional benefits.

D．It gains popularity during holidays.

3 . Paris with My Grandmother

Stood by her stove, watching her cook, I’d asked Nan if she had any regrets. She’d surprised me by saying instantly, “I always wish I’d gone to Paris.” It was the way she made it sound like an impossibility. It was as if the fact that she’d not gone there with Granddad meant she would never go.     1    .

As this day approached, I became increasingly anxious. Besides worries about something going wrong or an emergency of some sort, I was concerned about how it would be for just the two of us to be together for 60 hours straight. Although we often talked with an ease and enthusiasm that delighted us both, our conversations didn’t always catch light.     2    ?

    3    . And so we did, walking from the Louvre’s courtyards to Notre Dame. I was constantly aware of overexerting (用力过猛的) Nan. Despite my frequent inquiries throughout the trip, Nan always said that she was happy to keep going.

We spent the afternoon wandering the streets and leisurely taking coffee. After dinner, we walked until a lamplit square brought us to a stop. We ordered drinks and sat chatting, watching the night’s crowd stroll by.     4    . In them I felt, at last, Granddad’s absence move about us.

Seated with our drinks, Nan said finally, “Your Granddad would have loved Paris.”    5    .

So there in Paris, I sat quietly before a stream of images of my young grandfather, and learned how, half a century before, my Nan had been transformed by love.

A．Paris is a city you must walk in

B．But how would we travel together

C．The silences were long and comfortable

D．The Paris of her imagination came to life

E．That was what made me decide to take her

F．Then she led the conversation further backwards

G．And when had we ever spent longer than a few hours alone

4 . 假设你是李华，要参加学校的英语征文活动。这次征文要求大家给一位历史人物写感谢信，感谢他（她）为人类的进步所做出的贡献。内容请包括：
1. 历史人物的名字及其贡献；
2. 该人物对你的影响和启发；
3. 你对他（她）表达感谢。
注意：词数80词左右。
Dear ________,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you again, and best regards!

Yours,

Li Hua

5 . 每年的 12 月 5日是国际志愿者日(International Volunteer Day)。作为校志愿者协会(School Volunteer Association)主席，请你用英语在志愿者日发表国旗下讲话，内容包括：

1. 向校志愿者表示感谢；

2. 志愿服务的好处；

3. 发出呼吁。

注意: 1. 词数 80 左右；

2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear teachers and schoolmates,

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . I was visiting members of my late husband John’s medical team. They had worked hard when he _________ lung cancer. Each time I _________them for all they had done, I felt myself gaining closure.

Then I _________ to John’s favorite Chinese restaurant. We’d gone there after so many of John’s treatments. I wanted to talk to the manager, who knew about our _________ and had always been kind to us. When I pulled over, I could hear John’s voice in my cars. The _________ John told me every time I got behind the wheel. “Drive _________.”

This phrase was one of the ways he showed his _________. I knew when he said it, he was also saying, “I care about you.”

I took the manager aside. “I want you to know that John had _________.”

She _________. I gave her a hug __________ that John and I had so many people who cared. We exchanged some __________ of him and shared a few laughs.

As I was about to leave, I spotted a fortune cookie left by the manager. Should I__________ it? I didn’t need a fortune to tell me that life without John would still be__________. Still, just for fun, I opened the cookie and __________ the small piece of paper inside.

“The __________ ahead is long,” my fortune read. Drive safely.

1.

A．treated

B．battled

C．survived

D．removed

2.

A．favored

B．supported

C．thanked

D．praised

3.

A．rushed

B．fled

C．wandered

D．drove

4.

A．demand

B．situation

C．preference

D．relation

5.

A．secrets

B．Words

C．orders

D．warnings

6.

A．bravely

B．carefully

C．slowly

D．safely

7.

A．presence

B．devotion

C．comfort

D．love

8.

A．passed away

B．broken down

C．gone away

D．backed down

9.

A．panicked

B．shouted

C．cried

D．hesitated

10.

A．surprised

B．cheerful

C．satisfied

D．grateful

11.

A．memories

B．opinions

C．expectations

D．updates

12.

A．keep

B．open

C．return

D．taste

13.

A．boring

B．tough

C．full

D．stable

14.

A．flattened

B．folded

C．shared

D．grabbed

15.

A．line

B．story

C．road

D．race

7 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

One of my favorite possessions is a little red can. It sits among my collections, looking somewhat old and out of place. But this can is special. It has a history. It was dear to me when I was younger, but mean even more to me now.

I’ve always loved to visit my grandparents in Cleburne, Texas, and as anyone in the family can tell you, there is always a gathering around the dining room table for meals and conversations so that we can keep in touch closely. It is important to keep in touch with the family members since we are busy with our own business, so my family members keep the tradition to have the gathering every month. We enjoy the moment when all of us meet in a place and communication helps us to solve the problem of isolation. As the first grandbaby, though, I was at a slight disadvantage. When I sat in the dining chair, only my nose could reach the table. Cleburne is a small town with a small population, and the phone book could only lift me an inch. So, Grandma and Grandpa came up with the idea of the little red can.

It was about ten inches high, made of tin, and painted a glorious shiny red. It worked perfectly, enabling me to bang away on the table with my little spoon and cup as I tried to keep up with the joyful talks around the table. After I finished a meal, I was placed on the floor, and the can was opened, and all sorts of surprises kept me busy while the adults visited. The can was full of lovely dolls which attracted little girls like me greatly. Besides, there were fresh and novel items that were mysterious to me and left me to explore.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。

Pretty soon, other grandbabies started to arrive, and each of them had their own turn on the little red can. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Decades later, Grandma proudly pulled out the little red can again when I traveled to Cleburne with my daughter. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Cooking or baking has become a common cure for stress or feeling down, but there might actually be some science behind it. A study conducted by researchers followed 658 people for two weeks and found that a little creativity each day can go a long way towards happiness and satisfaction in daily life.

“There is growing recognition in psychology research that creativity is associated with emotional functioning,” Tamlin Conner, lead author on the study, explained. “However, most of this work focuses on how emotions benefit or prevent creativity, not whether creativity benefits or hampers (妨碍) emotional well-being.” By following detailed diaries kept by the study subjects, Conner found that in addition to feeling happier, people who worked on little creative projects every day also felt they were “flourishing”—a psychological term that describes the feeling of personal growth.

This isn’t the first time researchers have drawn a line connecting making food with positive feelings. In recent years, psychologists have started spending more time exploring cooking and baking as a therapeutic (治疗的) tool to help people dealing with things like depression and anxiety.

“When I’m in the kitchen, measuring the amount of sugar or butter I need for a recipe—I am in control,” baker John Whaite, who won “The Great British Bake Off” in 2012, told BBC.

For people like Whaite, who is suffering from manic depression, baking can help their mood by providing small tasks to focus on in a manner similar to meditation (冥想). In order to put together a good meal, cooks have to be constantly in the moment, adding ingredients, adjusting the heat of the stove and tasting their food—all of which can be helpful techniques in treating some forms of mental illness.

“A lot of us turn to baking when we’re feeling low.” Melanie Denyer, the founder of the Depressed Cake Shop, a bakery designed to draw awareness to mental health conditions, says. “Some of us even started baking because they were ill and needed something simple as a focus. And there is genuinely something very therapeutic about baking.”

Baking may not be a be-all and end-all cure for mental illness, but anyone in need of lifted spirits should consider pulling out the flour and warming up the oven.

1. What is the focus of most psychology research on creativity and emotions?

A．The benefits of creative projects on emotions.

B．The impacts of emotion on creativity.

C．The harm of creativity to emotional well-being.

D．The effects of creativity on emotional well-being.

2. Why do some psychologists explore cooking as a therapeutic tool?

A．To provide an alternative form of meditation.

B．To promote healthy and balanced eating habits.

C．To assist individuals in handling mental problems.

D．To help people with serious physical illnesses.

3. How did John Whaite benefit from baking?

A．It won him “The Great British Bake Off”.

B．It helped him gain a sense of control.

C．It cured his depression through meditation.

D．It enabled him to become more creative.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Cooking and baking are creative activities.

B．Baking is a complete cure for mental illness.

C．Small creative tasks lead to improved emotional well-being.

D．Following recipes leads to personal growth in creativity.

9 . Having an actual phobia (恐惧症) is anything but enjoyable.     1     . For children, it leads to heightened anxiety and may lead up to school avoidance. If you or your child experiences a phobia, you may wish to try the following to reduce the distress surrounding it.

1. Name the fear.

    2     . Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, summarizes this experience as “name it to tame it.” Pixar’s movie Monsters, Inc. illustrates this nicely as the monster in the closet becomes less scary when Boo names it Kitty.

2. Talk about and analyze the fear.

Ask yourself whether the fear is sensible.     3     . It is important to note that while the percentage of many feared items happening is extremely remote, they are not necessarily 0 percent. Therefore, this step is often paired with finding a way to make peace with the feared stimulus (刺激物) still existing in the world.

3. Safely face the fear.

This is demonstrated to be the most enduring way to put fears behind us. Any unhelpful coping mechanisms, especially avoidance, must be removed.     4     . For instance, if someone is afraid of snakes, picturing a snake in one’s mind comes first, then looking at a picture of the sidewinder (响尾蛇), and finally going to the zoo. These steps can be paired with relaxation strategies to limit the physiological fear response. Not facing, or worse, avoiding, fear tends to give it more power and make the phobia stronger over time.

    5     . However, when that fear becomes excessive or fixed, it can prevent us from enjoying the joys or necessities of life. If a phobia persists, it is always an option to seek the help of a mental health professional. Whatever you do, it is important not to let the fear consume you or your child’s life.

A．Labeling the fear tends to reduce the power of the feared item.

B．For adults, the phobia can seriously limit a person’s functioning.

C．In summary, it is perfectly natural and human to experience fears.

D．Phobias all have interesting names, some as scary sounding as the feared item itself.

E．Generally speaking, the more a person seeks treatment for the phobia, the better the outcome.

F．Since many fears are groundless in nature, this step helps to reduce “worst-case scenario” thinking.

G．It’s crucial to set the stage for success by safely and gradually facing the feared stimulus, step by step.

10 . A couple of weeks back, my darling wife had been asking me to come over to my son’s school (where she teaches) and teach the pupils “Origami”, a Japanese art of ________paper into different objects. My 7-year-old son had no ________of my coming and that makes it ________for me.

We were about to take the ________when I got my first “starring moment”. “Who is this daddy? Why is he walking in a funny way? How is he going to climb the stairs?” ________these, my wife helped me with one of my crutches(拐杖).

Little did I know that the first class she’s taking me to ________to be my son’s. On opening the door, with no warning, and to the ________of his classmates, came that unique but ________ scream “Daada!!!”and he practically ran out of his classroom to give me a bear hug. His mates couldn’t help staring with envy and ________!

I sat down, made my introduction and gave   ________on paper-folding. They all clapped and ________their thanks even as I made my way to the next class.

I left that school feeling ________.What more do I want but to continually be ________to God for everything? My wife has always seen me as a physically fit person who can ________any task and now I find my 7-year old boy is actually ________ of me!

1.

A．recycling

B．folding

C．wrapping

D．tearing

2.

A．attempt

B．responsibility

C．honour

D．knowledge

3.

A．fantastic

B．worrying

C．changeable

D．impressive

4.

A．stairs

B．objects

C．chances

D．classes

5.

A．Tracking

B．Answering

C．Ignoring

D．Watching

6.

A．seemed

B．used

C．intended

D．happened

7.

A．satisfaction

B．disappointment

C．amazement

D．embarrassment

8.

A．angry

B．familiar

C．painful

D．constant

9.

A．admiration

B．anxiety

C．caution

D．discrimination

10.

A．conferences

B．impressions

C．arguments

D．instructions

11.

A．clarified

B．expressed

C．stressed

D．controlled

12.

A．disappointed

B．concerned

C．satisfied

D．refreshed

13.

A．grateful

B．useful

C．thoughtful

D．helpful

14.

A．take on

B．care about

C．apply for

D．approve of

15.

A．afraid

B．certain

C．ashamed

D．proud