Even at school there had been an unhealthy competition between George and Richard.
“I’ll be the first millionaire in Coleford!” Richard used to boast（吹嘘）.
“And you’ll be sorry you knew me,” George would reply “because I’ll be the best lawyer in the town!”
George never did become a lawyer and Richard never made any money. Instead both men opened bookshops on opposite sides of Coleford High Street. It was hard to make money from books, which made the competition between them worse.
Then Richard married a mysterious girl. The couple spent their honeymoon on the coast—but Richard never came back. The police found his wallet on a deserted beach but the body was never found. He must have drowned.
Now with only one bookshop in town, business was better for George. But sometimes he sat in his narrow, old kitchen and gazed out of the dirty window, thinking about his formal rival(竞争对手). Perhaps he missed him?
George was very interested in old dictionaries. He’d recently found a collector in Australia who was selling a rare first edition. When the parcel arrived, the book was in perfect condition and George was delighted. But while he was having lunch, George glanced at the photo in the newspaper that the book had been wrapped in. He was astonished—the smiling face was older than he remembered but unmistakable! Trembling, George started reading.
“Bookends have bought ten bookstores from their rivals Dylans. The company, owned by multi-millionaire Richard Pike, is now the largest bookseller in Australia.”
1. George and Richard were ______ at school.
A. competitors B. good friends C. roommates D. booksellers
2. George got information about Richard from ______.
A. a dictionary collector in Australia
B. Richard’s wife
C. a rare first edition of a dictionary
D. the wrapping paper of a book
3. How did George feel about Richard after his disappearance?
A. He envied Richard’s marriage.
B. He thought of Richard from time to time.
C. He felt lucky with no rival in town.
D. He was guilty of Richard’s death.
4.What happened to George and Richard in the end?
A. Both George and Richard became millionaires.
B. Both of them realized their original ambitions.
C. Richard became a millionaire while George had no great success.
D. George established a successful business while Richard was missing.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts(小屋）made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet（字母表）, and some can make words.
The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.
The goal is to find out whether kids using today’s new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they’re already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.
The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device’s camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.
With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn’t know any English. That’s unbelievable,” said Keller.
The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won’t be in Amharic, Ethiopia’s first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.
1. What can we infer from Keller’s words in Paragraph 3?
A. They need more time to analyze data.
B. More children are needed for the research.
C. He is confident about the future of the project.
D. The research should be carried out in kindergartens.
2. How does the Ethiopia program benefit the kids in the village?
A. It trains teachers for them.
B. It contributes to their self-study.
C. It helps raise their living standards.
D. It provides funds for building schools.
3.What is the aim of the project?
A. To offer Ethiopians higher paying jobs.
B. To make Amharic widely used in the world.
C. To help Ethiopian kids read to learn in English.
D. To assist Ethiopians in learning their first language.
4.It amazed Keller that with the tablet Kelbesa could _______.
A. learn English words quickly.
B. draw pictures of animals.
C. write letters to researchers.
D. make phone calls to his friends.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Gift No. I
Offer to be your mother's health friend. Promise to be there for any and all doctor's visits whether a disease or a regular medical check-up. Most mothers always say "no need," another set of eyes and ears is always a good idea at a doctor's visit. The best part ? This one is free.
Gift No. 2
Help your mother organize all of her medical records, which include the test results and medical information. Put them all in one place. Be sure to make a list of all of her medicines and what times she takes them. "Having all this information in one place could end up saving your mother's life," Dr. Marie Savard said.
Gift No. 3
Enough sleep is connected to general health conditions. "Buy your mother cotton sheets and comfortable pillows to encourage better sleep," Savard said. "We know that good sleep is very important to our health."
Gift No. 4
Some gift companies such as Presents for Purpose allow you to pay it forward this Mother's Day by picking gifts in which 10 percent of the price you pay goes to a charity (慈善机构) Gift givers can choose from a wide variety of useful but inexpensive things -many of which are "green" - and then choose a meaningful charity from a list. When your mother gets the gift, she will be told that she has helped the chosen charity.
1.What are you advised to do for your mother at doctor's visits?
A. Take notes. B. Be with her.
C. Buy medicine. D. Give her gifts.
2. Where can you find a gift idea to improve your mother’s sleep?
A. In Gift No. 1. B. In Gift No. 2.
C. In Gift No. 3. D. In Gift No. 4.
3. Buying gifts from Presents for Purpose allows mothers to .
A. get extra support B. enjoy good sleep
C. be well-organized D. give others help
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed (展示) at the entrance? Or the soft background music?
But have you ever notice the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop’s scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is providing to be an increasing powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.
A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers’ intention to purchase increased by 80 percent.
When it comes to the best shopping streets in Pairs, scent is just as important to a brand’s success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sales. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.
Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants’ disproving attitude and don’t-touch-what-you-can’t-afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce电子商务) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this.
Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut (椰子) scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store’s windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent.
1. E-shops are mentioned in the passage to _______ .
A. introduce the rise of e-commerce
B. urge shop assistants to change their attitude
C. push stores to use sights and sounds
D. show the advantages of brick-and-mortar stores
2. The underlined word “destination” in Paragraph 5 means _______ .
A. a platform that exhibits goods
B. a spot where travelers like to stay
C. a place where customers love to go
D. a target that a store expects to meet
3.The main purpose of the passage is to ______ .
A. compare and evaluate B. inform and explain
C. examine and assess D. argue and discuss
4. According to the passage, what is an increasingly powerful tool in the success of some brand store?
A. Unique scents. B. Friendly assistant.
C. Soft background music D. attractive window display.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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。选项中有两项为多余选项。
How to Be Confident
We are all human and have weaknesses. Even if your physical appearance or social skills aren’t what you wish they were, that doesn’t have to stop you from being confident. 1._____
*Make a list of special talents you have, or things you do that are good—morally（道德上） or otherwise. It doesn’t have to be a specific skill；it can be an approach or an attitude that you hold through life. 2.____ Are you very patient with people? Do you always see the humorous side of things? Are you always there for your friends?
*3._____ When you feel strongly about something, speak loudly and clearly and make eye contact with people. People will judge you all the time, and usually they’ll misjudge you anyway, so why bother trying to live up to their opinions at all?
*Take care of yourself. Eat a healthy diet and get enough exercise. Don’t abuse your body, don’t overload it, and don’t deny it any of the things it needs. At the same time, don’t obsess(沉迷). 4.____ Those things are only band-aids(权宜之计） and make-up. Confidence comes from within. In order to be confident, you must value yourself and understand that your well-being is important.
*Improve your posture. 5._____ Don’t drop your shoulders. Make sure that your back is straight, your shoulders are square, and your chest sticks out slightly (but stay loose, otherwise you’ll appear stubborn （固执的）and nervous). Good posture also helps with deep breathing, which helps with feeling calm and relaxed.
A. Here’s how to believe in yourself.
B. But smiling at yourself in the mirror helps you to love yourself, thus making you a bit more confident.
C. Buying all the moisturizers (润肤霜) and creams will not bring you closer to who you want to be.
D. It is surprising how powerful the simple step of taking action can be.
E. Do you always stay calm, cool and collected, even in hurried situations?
F. Having good posture can actually make you feel more confident.
G. Know that you have important things to say and do.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
完形填空
A little girl lived in a simple and poor house on a hill. Usually she play in the small garden. She could see over the garden fence and across the valley a wonderful house with shining golden windows high on another hill. she loved her parents and her family, she desired(渴望）to live in such a house and all day about how wonderful and exciting must feel to live there.
At the age when she gained some skill and sensibility(识别力), she her mother for a bike ride _ the garden. Her mother finally allowed her to go, her keeping close to the house and not too far. The day was beautiful. The little girl knew where she was heading! the hill and across the valley, she rode to the of the golden house.
she got off her bike and put it against the gate post, she focused on the path _ to the house and then on the house itself. She was very disappointed when she that all the windows were _ and rather dirty.
So and heart-broken, she didn’t go any further. She , and all of a sudden she saw an amazing . There on the other side of the valley was a little house and its windows were golden. Looking at her little home, she __ that she had been living in her golden house filled with love and care. Everything she dreamed was right there in front of her house.
1.A. might B. should C. must D. would
2.A. Unless B. Since C. Although D. But
3.A. worried B. dreamed C. asked D. shouted
4.A. it B. that C. this D. which
5.A. different B. basic C. musical D. scientific
6.A. blamed B. begged C. invited D. paid
7.A. inside B. along C. through D. outside
8.A. arguing about B. relying on C. insisting on D. wondering about
9.A. traveling B. running C. riding D. walking
10.A. exactly B. rapidly C. madly D. possibly
11.A. Over B. Down C. Around D. Beside
12.A. windows B. steps C. center D. gate
13.A. Until B. As C. While D. Because
14.A. getting B. introducing C. leading D. moving
15.A. felt B. learned C. concluded D. found
16.A. plain B. bright C. transported D. wide
17.A. anxious B. sad C. serious D. angry
18.A. turned down B. cheered up C. settled down D. dropped in
19.A. sight B. valley C. background D. hill
20.A. imagined B. decided C. guessed D. realized
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
语法填空
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。
Once a year, a race __1.__ (hold) for old cars. A lot of cars entered for this race last year and there was a great deal of excitement just before it began. One of the most handsome cars was a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. _2.__ most unusual car was a Benz __3._ had only three wheels. 4.__(build) in 1885, it was the oldest car taking part. After a great many loud explosions(轰响），the race began. Many of the cars __5._ (break) down on the way so some drivers spent __6._ time under their cars than in them! A few cars, __7.__, completed the race. The winning car reached a speed of forty miles an hour ----much faster than any of _8.___(it) rivals. It sped downhill at the end of the race and the driver had a lot of trouble __9.__(try) to stop it. The race gave everyone a great deal of pleasure. It was very different from modern car races but no less _10.___(excite).
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处，每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均限一词。2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
My summer travel started terribly. I was at the Shanghai Railway Station buy a ticket to Hang Zhou. I was going to visit a friend here and after that I would go to Xiamen for long holiday. I bought my ticket but turned around to pick up my bag from the floor and then I realized that someone has stolen it. Unluckily, I had all my money in my pocket, but the only clothes I had was those I had on. It was very strange to travel without any luggages. When I finally arrived at my friend, he lent me lots of clothes. I felt very happy about that I could change my clothes at last.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
书面表达
假定你是一位即将毕业的高三学生，学校将为高一新生举办主题为“What to learn in senior high school？”的英语沙龙活动，特邀你谈谈自己的体会。请根据以下提示准备一份英语发言稿。
1. 学习：有效地学习，学习习惯等；2. 做人：与人友好相处等。
注意：1. 词数100左右；2. 发言稿开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：efficiently(高效地）effective(有效的）
Good morning, everyone! It is my honor to be here to share with you my opinions on what to learn in senior high school.
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Thank you!
难度: 中等查看答案及解析