How nice are you? Do you give money to homeless people? Do you offer your seat to someone in need on a bus?

Many people believe that confident people think more highly of themselves, while those who have low self-esteem (自尊) think less of their good qualities. However, a new study says it might not be true, reported The Guardian.

The study was done by Jonathan Freeman, a psychology professor from the University of London, UK. He found that 98 percent of British people consider themselves to be among the nicest 50 percent of the population. In the study, Freeman first asked some people to rate (評(píng)級(jí)) their own niceness. Then he got people to answer questions like “Do you give directions to strangers?” and “Have you ever donated blood?”. The results showed that people are not as nice as they think they are. Two thirds of them seldom helped others carry heavy shopping bags, and only a quarter of them donated blood.

In another study by psychologists from universities in Chicago and Virginia, US, some people were shown pictures of themselves. Some pictures had been more or less changed to make them appear more attractive（有吸引力的）. When asked to pick the unchanged pictures, people usually chose the more attractive ones.

So, why do we think we’re nicer than we actually are? There are many theories (理論). A popular one says we unknowingly cheat ourselves, so that we can get confidence without knowingly lying to ourselves or each other.

How can we solve it? Other studies show that there is a simple way: feedback (反饋). Compare others’ opinion toward yourself with your own and you will see a clearer picture.

【1】Where does the passage most probably come from?

A. A magazine. B. A grammar book. C. A dictionary. D. A story book.

【2】What did the new study find?

A. Confident people have more good qualities.

B. People with low self-esteem are mostly not nice.

C. People are not as nice as they think they are.

D. Confident people don’t like those with low-esteem.

【3】Which of the following about Freeman’s study is NOT true?

A. Freeman is a British psychology professor.

B. About 98 percent of British people think they’re nice people.

C. The people answered some questions about niceness.

D. One fourth of the people helped others carry heavy bags.

【4】According to Para 5, people chose the more attractive pictures of themselves because ________.

A. they were not happy with their looks

B. it was hard to tell small differences

C. they lied to themselves without knowing it

D. they wanted themselves to look good

【5】What does the story mainly talk about?

A. How to be a nicer person. B. Others’ opinions toward you.

C. How to know ourselves well. D. People’s opinion of their own niceness.

When I go to a new place, the first thing I like to do is walking around the streets, to explore and get lost in the city. When I first arrived in Santiago, Chile, and took a walk around the city center, one of the first things I noticed was how many stray dogs there were. The phrase “street dog” or “stray dog” is used to describe a dog with no home, who lives on the streets.

On every corner there was a sleeping dog. At every traffic light there was a dog waiting to cross. By every shop there was a dog waiting for food. At first I was nervous as I thought they might be aggressive or unfriendly. However, I have been here for more than a year now and every stray dog I have seen has been passive (順從的), quiet and friendly.

The dogs are accepted and welcomed here in Chile. I have never seen a street dog being mistreated. In fact, they are often given food and water by the public. Some people even make jackets for the dogs or put out beds or kennels for them to sleep in.

The dogs do not have an easy life: they are often hungry, cold or injured. The government does not provide much care for these dogs.

Some people believe that the situation is getting out of control and that it is unacceptable to have so many dogs on the streets. The dogs can sometimes cause problems such as car accidents if they run into the road. There are around 2.5 million stray dogs in Chile and the dog population is growing faster than the human population. Many Chileans think that all the stray dogs should be sterilized (絕育的) so that they cannot breed (繁殖). Others think that the stray dog population should be culled (i.e. reducing the population by killing them).

The future of street dogs is uncertain but for now it looks like they are here to stay, with their population increasing year by year.

【1】What did the writer find when she was in Chile?

A. Street dogs were unfriendly to foreigners.

B. Street dogs were quiet and afraid of people.

C. Shops were responsible for taking care of street dogs.

D. There were many street dogs in the city center.

【2】Which of the following statements is TRUE about street dogs in Chile?

A. They are well taken care of by the government.

B. They live a happy and easy life in the city.

C. They often receive help from local people.

D. Many of them have been mistreated.

【3】What can be learnt from the article?

A. The population of street dogs in Chile will soon be reduced.

B. The Chilean government is working to improve the life of street dogs.

C. Street dogs are responsible for most of Chile’s car accidents.

D. Street dogs are a cause for worry for some people in Chile.

【4】The underlined word “aggressive” in the passage probably means__________.

A. 增長(zhǎng)的 B. 有吸收力的 C. 積極的 D. 有攻擊性的

【5】The article was mainly written to ___________.

A. show how dogs live well with people B. call on people to protect street dogs

C. discuss problems caused by street dogs D. describe the situation of street dogs in Chile

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most American students went to a one-room schoolhouse. A single teacher would typically have students in the first through eighth grades, and she taught them all. The number of students varied from six to 40 or more. The youngest children sat in the front, while the oldest students sat at the back. The teacher usually taught reading, writing, arithmetic(算法), history, and geography. Students memorized and retold their lessons.

The classroom of a one-room schoolhouse probably looked much like your own. The teacher’s desk stood on a raised platform in the front of the room, however, and there was a wood-burning stove since there was no other way of heating. The bathroom was outside in an outhouse.

In Honeoye Falls, New York, there is a one-room schoolhouse where kids today can experience what it was like to the students in the late 19th century. For a week during the summer, they wear 19th century clothes and learn the way children learned more than a hundred years ago.

What else has changed about school since the 19th century? For more information, please visit our website: www. Locallygacy.com.

【1】What does the underlined word “varied” in the Paragraph Two mean?

A. be widely different B. be the same C. to change D. become more

【2】Which of the following best shows what a one-room schoolhouse was like in the late 19th century?

A. B.

C. D.

【3】Some kids go to Honeoye Falls to _____.

A. try the food in the late 19th century B. learn the subjects over a century ago

C. memorized and retell their lessons they have learn D. experience the way children learned over a century ago

【4】Which of the following is TRUE about the students in a one-room schoolhouse？

A. They had only one teacher. B. They had different classrooms.

C. They could choose the seats they liked. D. They learned more subjects than we do now.

我們?cè)谥袑W(xué)生中做了一項(xiàng)調(diào)查，怎樣迎接2008奧運(yùn)，涉及到三個(gè)話題，調(diào)查結(jié)果如下圖所示。請(qǐng)先描述該圖內(nèi)容；然后選擇其中的兩個(gè)你感興趣的話題，發(fā)表你自己的觀點(diǎn)。（80－100字）

We did a survey about “What will you do for the 2008 Olympic Games?”in middle school students. Here are the results. ___________________________________.

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A. alone; alone B. alone; lonely

C. lonely; lonely D. lonely; alone

最近，學(xué)校就空中俱樂(lè)部的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)內(nèi)容設(shè)置做了意向調(diào)查(結(jié)果見(jiàn)下面圖表)。請(qǐng)你幫俱樂(lè)部用英語(yǔ)寫(xiě)一篇報(bào)告，并談?wù)勀阕约旱南敕ɑ蚪ㄗh。

◆51% practice spoken English

◆25% watch English movies

◆18% read more classics

◆6% learn foreign culture

注意：(1)文中應(yīng)包含圖表所提供的要點(diǎn)，可適當(dāng)發(fā)揮；(2)想法和建議至少兩條；文中不能出現(xiàn)真實(shí)姓名和校名；(3)詞數(shù)：80～100(短文開(kāi)頭不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)，考生可以選擇使用)。

Recently we've made a survey of school sky English club.

________________________________________________________________________

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A．am

B．is

C．are

—Yes, driving a car to school every day makes me much ______.

A. fat B. fatter

C. thin D. thinner

—Oh, I’m sorry. I dinner at my friends’ home.

A. have B. had

C. was having D. have had

A. turn on B. turn down

C. turn off D. turn up