Long long ago, a God called Ratu lived in the sky. Ratu liked to play games and make people angry. The game he liked best was to fly down into the sea and frighten all the fishes. The fishes became very tired of his game. They asked Hemi, the God of the sea, to help them.
So Hemi tried to catch Ratu the next time he flew into the sea, but he was too slow. Ratu laughed at Hemi as he flew past him. This made Hemi angry and he had an idea. He asked the fishes to bring him a lot of seaweed. Hemi tied it all together and made a large net from it. Soon Ratu flew down and Hemi threw the net over him. Ratu fought and fought but could not get free. He was caught.
Ratu promised（保证）never to frighten fishes again if Hemi would set him free. But Hemi did not believe him. Instead, he changed Ratu into a mountain in the sea. Ratu was so angry that when he opened his mouth to shout at Hemi, fire and smoke broke out. And that is why the Island of Ratu is a volcano（火山）.
1.This story is a ________.
A. joke B. humor
C. true story D. fairy tale
2.The key meaning of this story is ________.
A. how volcanoes are born
B. how Ratu was beaten
C. why some gods are good and some are bad
D. why the Island of Ratu is a volcano
3.Ratu like to fly down into the sea because ________.
A. he liked to make fun of the fishes
B. the fishes welcomed him
C. the fishes were friendly to him
D. he had too much fire in his mouth.
4.The main point of the story seems to be that ________.
A. the person who makes trouble will be punished
B. some volcanoes in the sea are gods
C. seaweed is a good material for making nets
D. one who makes promises is not to be always believed
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Do you want to know something about the history of weather? Don’t look at the sky. Don’t look for old weather reports. Looking at tree rings is more important. Correct weather reports date back only one century, but some trees can provide an exact record of the weather even further back.
It is natural that a tree would grow best in a climate with plenty of sunlight and rainfall. It is also expected that little sunlight and rainfall would limit the growth of a tree. The change from a favorable to an unfavorable climate can be determined by reading the pattern of rings in a tree trunk. The find the weather of ten years ago, count the rings of a tree trunk from the outside to the inside. If the tenth ring is far from the other rings, then it is certain that plenty of sunny and rainy weather occurred. If the rings are closed together, then the climate was bad for the tree.
Studying tree rings is important not only for the history of weather, but also for the history of man. In a region of New Mexico you can find only sand---no trees and no people. However, many centuries ago a large population lived there. They left suddenly. Why?
A scientist studied patterns of dead tree rings which had grown there. He decided that the people had to leave because they had cut down all the trees. Trees were necessary to make fires and buildings. So, after the people destroyed the trees, they had to move. In this instance studying tree rings uncovers an exciting fact about the history of man.
1.It is understood that in a favorable climate ________.
A. tree rings grow together
B. tree rings grow far apart
C. trees in New Mexico will grow big and tall
D. people can cut down most of the trees in New Mexico
2.The scientists are interested in studying tree rings because they can tell ________.
A. whether in that area the climate was favorable or not
B. whether a particular tree was healthy or not
C. whether people took good care of the trees or not
D. how old the trees were
3.By studying the dead tree rings, the scientist discovered ________.
A. where the people had left
B. what the people used to eat
C. how the people left
D. why the people had to leave
4.The main idea of the passage is ________.
A. tree rings reflect the history of weather and the history of man
B. destroying tree will do man no good
C. studying tree ring is the only way to know the history of weather
D. man shouldn’t cut so many trees
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19. 2003. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.
Looking thinner and darker, 30 year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames（泰晤士河）and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process（过程）doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.
Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention.
In 1999, he was buried in a coffin（棺材）for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice. Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar（柱子）in the center of New York for 35 hour before jumping into a pile of boxes.
“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said. “They don’t realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation.”
But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.
1.It is ________ for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.
A. pleasant B. delicious
C. dangerous D. important
2.Having spent such a long time in the glass box, he suffered the following EXCEPT that ________.
A. he had become blind B. he had serious back pains
C. he lost his sense of taste D. he was in weak health
3.Which of the following can best describe David Blaine?
A. Serious B. Adventurous
C. Mad D. Crazy
4.Which of the following is NOT true of David Blaine?
A. Blaine immediately went to hospital after he was taken out of his box.
B. Blaine was born and brought up in England.
C. In Blaine’s opinion, people can create a wonder.
D. Blaine didn’t have any food for 44 days.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
British men are abandoning（抛弃，放弃）their stiff upper lips but still do not wear their hearts on their sleeves like Americans, a new survey showed. When it comes to strong emotion, the once serious British are now happy to shed tears quite openly.
“Thirty percent of all British males have cried in the last month. That is a very high figure,” said Peter Marsh, director of the Social Issues Research Center which took the emotional temperature of Britain. “Only two percent said they could not remember when they last cried,” the head of the independent research group said.
Long gone is the “No Tears — We’re British” time when emotion was considered distinctly bad form. “In our survey of 2,000 people, very few people in their forties of fifties had seen their father cry. Now it is twice as many,” he told reporters. “Seventy-seven percent of men considered crying in public increasingly acceptable.” Almost half the British men opened the floodgates over a sad movie, book or TV program. Self-pity got 17 percent crying. Nine percent cried at weddings.
From the days of Empire, the British have always considered themselves models of reserve（含蓄缄默）, laughing at “excitable foreigners” who show no self-control.
Marsh argued the divide was still there: “We have probably not caught up with the Americans or the Italians when it comes to the actual display of emotions.
“But we are clearly changing. What we take as typical British reserve has significantly faded”
Women’s battle for equal rights has certainly had an effect — both in the workplace and at home. “Men in their twenties or thirties are interacting（相互影响）with women on equal terms much more than a generation ago. They have to relate to the opposite sex. Women become more man-like and men become more female. That transfers into the work place too,” Marsh said.
1.The underlined phrase wear their hearts on their sleeves means ________.
A. wear their sleeves properly B. express their feeling openly
C. put their heart into their work D. have a heart-to-heart discussion
2.The British used to think crying in public ________.
A. natural B. sensible
C. unacceptable D. important
3.British men cried most ________.
A. over a sad film B. over self-pity
C. at wedding D. at graduation
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
1. one of the best things you can possibly do is to start you own club. It’s great fun especially if you are the sort of person who feels there’s never anything to do during the school holidays.
The first thing you need to come up with is an idea for your club. 2. pets, clothes, pop music or dancing groups, sports, making things? The list is endless.
Next, you need some friends to be in your club with you. 3. all you need is three or four other people who are interested in the same thing as you.
4. you should all sit down somewhere together with lots of pieces of paper and write down every name you can think up. That’ll keep you busy for ages.
At your first meeting you should make up a rule book. And the first rule should be no grown-ups or little/ big brothers or sisters! The best clubs are always secret!
Now you have just about everything you need, except membership cards. These are very important and again you can speed a lot of time making them. 5. why not leave some space for a photo of yourself? That will make the membership card really look like it.
So there you are, get clubbing! Once you get started, you’ll think of loads of more interesting things to do!
A. that’s easy
B. enjoy your own club!
C. invite a designer to join you.
D. what are you interested in?
E. Some vacation is just around the corner.
F. Then you need to pick a name for your club.
G. use a bright thick pen to make a special design.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
I went to Beijing this National holiday, and it was an interesting experience of my life.
My friends told us that taking the “hard ________” to Beijing would be really terrible. So we didn’t know what to ________. But we were pleasantly surprised when we finally boarded (get on) the ________, which was relatively modern and ________. During the 14 – hour ride we ate peanuts and talked. It was not ________ at all.
It was morning when we arrived. We stepped out of the railway station, having sat in hard seats and not getting much ________. However, we had energy. First we tried to get return tickets to Shanghai, but the tickets seller ________ us that tickets would not be on ________ for another two days. We were a little worried about getting ________, but we made up our minds to ________ for the hotel to put our bags down. After fighting our way ________ the “gypsy” taxi drivers that tried to ________ us one hundred yuan for the ride, we found a taxi and it ________ cost us thirty yuan to get ________ we had planned to go. When we reached the hotel, there was a window for airplane and train tickets. ________ the man behind the counter could get tickets that day, which we ________. The most important lesson about China I ever ________, is to get someone to do your work for you, and it seems to work out much ________. We were not able to get tickets, but the ________ agents（代理）could.
While in Beijing we saw a lot of places of interest, most of which were very ________. It was fun to be with thousands of people in one place. There aren’t any words to describe it.
1.A. chair B. bed C. seat D. bench
2.A. provide B. expect C. happen D. think
3.A. plane B. bus C. ship D. train
4.A. quick B. clean C. simple D. long
5.A. bad B. good C. easy D. hard
6.A. trouble B. food C. sleep D. help
7.A. promised B. informed C. advised D. persuaded
8.A. time B. show C. duty D. sale
9.A. behind B. out C. through D. back
10.A. start B. ask C. look D. pay
11.A. towards B. into C. across D. past
12.A. offer B. charge C. bargain D. share
13.A. even B. still C. also D. only
14.A. what B. which C. where D. how
15.A. Somehow B. However C. Therefore D. Otherwise
16.A. wouldn’t B. couldn’t C. shouldn’t D. needn’t
17.A. learned B. taught C. offered D. heard
18.A. harder B. earlier C. later D. easier
19.A. business B. transport C. travel D. hotel
20.A. interesting B. crowded C. famous D. noisy
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
语法填空
I feel lucky to 1. (win) a place on this trip. Next week we are going to Loulan, 2. is known as China’s Pompeii in the desert.
This morning we attended a lecture about Pompeii. The city 3. (found) in the 8th century BC, the Romans took 4. Pompeii. Near the city was a volcano. On 24 August AD 79, the volcano erupted. Many people were buried alive, ad so was 5. city. Today I saw the city of Pompeii 6. it was 2,000 years ago. How amazing! The city was forgotten for many years 7. the 18th century when a farmer discovered a stone with writing on it. People started to dig in this area for treasure, which caused much damage. Thus, in 1860, the area was put under government 8. (protect) so it could be preserved and studied. The volcano is still there, but looks very quiet now. It is hard 9. (imagine) how this 10. (peace) volcano destroyed the whole city.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
短文改错：找出文中10处错误，并更正。
A metal statue of Greek soldier was discovered in northern Xingjiang, China. Researchers explained that not doubt this was a result of Alexander the Great’s influence.
Alexander the Great was the son of a Greek king who defeated much Greek cities in battle. In the age of 20, he became king after his father died. However, many cities rose up against Alexander, so he led an army to take it back. Though his army had only 3,000 troop, but he won every battle. He took his army into the Middle East, Egypt, then India. It seemed that something could stop him from conquering the entire world. However, his own army grew tiring of endless battles and refused to go any farther. Late he came down with a fever and died in 323 BC.
Alexander the Great spread the Greek culture from Europe to Africa and Asia. The statue of the Greek soldier probable came to China in the 4th century BC with a result of trade.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
开学初老师和家长都要李华住校学习，而他却喜欢通学，双方各持己见。假设你是李华，请用英语把这个情况告诉中学英语报“学生之音”栏目组，请求主持人给予建议。
| 老师和家长的理由 | 李明的理由 |
| 方便问问题 晚自习时间更能保证； 培养独立生活的能力。 | 晚上有更多自习时间 学习内容可以自由支配。 |
注意：1. 词数100左右
2. 信的开头已写好，只需接着写；
3. 参考词语：住校—board (v.)
Dear Sir,
I’m a student of senior 3. ___________________________________________________________________
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析