I don’t really like the author _____ I have to admit his books are very exciting.

A. until B. unless C. although D. once

I think_____ impresses me about his painting is the colors he uses.

A. who B. that C. which D. what

完形填空（共20小題；每小題1分，共20分）

閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，從每題所給的A、B、C、D四個選項中，選出最佳選項，并在答題卡上將該項涂黑。

“Grandpa, what was the hardest thing you ever had in your life?” I expected a story of physical during those hard times, but Grandpa stopped walking and began to speak with in his eyes.

“Your grandma got after your Aunt Mary was born. Since there was no one to your mom and uncles, I had to send them to an orphanage (孤兒院) I could take two or three jobs until your grandma got well. The thing I ever had to do was put my babies there. I went every to see them, but the nuns (修女) wouldn’t let me talk to them. I could only my children play from behind a one-way (單向的) mirror. Sure, I brought them candies every week, but I could hope they knew the candies were me. I would keep both hands on the glass for the thirty minutes I was to see them, hoping they would see me and come to touch my ― but they never did. I’ll never myself for not holding them.”

I had never seen my grandfather cry before. He me close, and I told him that I had the best grandfather ever and that I loved him.

For fifteen years, that talk with Grandpa remained our .

After my grandmother passed away, my grandfather began to a loss of memory. I to encourage my mother to let Grandpa come and live with us, but she said, “Why? He never what happened to us!”

“He has always cared for you and loved you. He was really for not being able to hold you that year!” I said. Tears started to gather in the corners of her eyes. The anger and sadness faded (逐漸消失) from her face. Not long after, my grandfather came to live with us.

1.A. strength B. work C. exercise D. examination

2.A. patience B. pleasure C. care D. tears

3.A. sick B. lost C. disappointed D. changed

4.A. look for B. depend on C. take care of D. look up to

5.A. but B. so C. or D. if

6.A. happiest B. bravest C. easiest D. hardest

7.A. week B. day C. month D. afternoon

8.A. feel B. hear C. make D. watch

9.A. nearly B. certainly C. only D. seldom

10.A. about B. for C. with D. from

11.A. allowed B. ordered C. begged D. encouraged

12.A. hands B. glasses C. candies D. eyes

13.A. help B. devote C. forgive D. enjoy

14.A. ran B. caught C. followed D. held

15.A. strange B. special C. active D. lucky

16.A. pity B. shame C. puzzle D. secret

17.A. get rid of B. pay attention toC. suffer from D. recover from

18.A. tried B. managed C. agreed D. promised

19.A. talked about B. cared about C. found out D. left out

20.A. cruel B. unfortunate C. responsible D. sorry

Obama Still Smokes in Secret

US President Barack Obama has just made life more difficult for cigarette makers. He has just signed a law that will set tough new rules for the tobacco industry. The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the making and marketing of tobacco products.

At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90% of smokers who took up the habit before their 18th birthday.

Obama, who has publicly struggled to give up smoking, said he still hasn’t completely kicked the habit. Every now and then he still smokes in secret.

“As a former smoker I struggle with it all the time. Do I still smoke sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.” Obama said at a news conference.

“I don’t do it in front of my kids. I don’t do it in front of my family. I would say that I am 95% cured, but there are times when I mess up,” he said.

“Once you go down this path, it’s something you continually struggle with, which is exactly why the law is so important. The new law is not about me, it’s about the next generation of kids coming up. What we don’t want is kids going down that path.” he said.

Nearly 20% of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases.

1.The new law makes life difficult for ________.

A. Obama B. tobacco industry

C. White House D. US Food and Drug Administration

2.What do we know about Obama?

A. He no longer smokes.

B. He still smokes as usual.

C. He began to smoke at eighteen.

D. He is trying hard to give up smoking.

3. According to the passage, Obama is most concerned about ________.

A. children B. officials

C. his family D. businessmen

Have you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it? Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to make it clear in your own mind. How can you use this to increase your brain power? Start writing.

By putting thoughts into words, you are telling yourself the logic (邏輯) behind what you think, feel, or only partly understand. Often, explaining a thought is the process of understanding. In other words, you increase your brain power by exercising your “explain power.”

Try this experiment. Explain how you’ll increase your brain power, even if you have no idea how right now. Just start with anything, and create an explanation. For example, start with “I’ll learn chess,” or “I’ll read an article on the mind every week.” Explain how that will help. You’ll be surprised how often this becomes a workable plan, and if you actually do this, you’ll have a better understanding of your brain twenty minutes from now.

Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember. Many, if not most, highly productive people are always taking notes. You can try keeping it all in your head, but if you keep a journal of your ideas the next time you’re working on a big project, you’ll probably have more success.

Want to understand a topic? Write a book about it. That’s an extreme example, but if you are learning something new, write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better. Want to invent something? Write an explanation of the problem, why you want to solve it, and why it is worth solving, and you’re half-way there.

Writers don’t always write because they clearly understand something beforehand. Often, they write about something because they want to understand it. You can do the same. Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try.

1.What would be the best title for the text?

A. A Way on How to Write

B. Increase Your Brain Power through Writing

C. Brain Power Helps Improve Your Writing

D. How to Start Your Writing

2.If a writer writes something, it means that he or she _______.

A. has understood it very well

B. needs to understand it better

C. wants to remember it in his or her mind

D. is exercising his or her “explain power”

3.The underlined sentence “you’re half-way there” in the fifth paragraph implies that ______.

A. you are already successful

B. you still need to work hard

C. writing can help you walk half way

D. you have been on the way to success

4.What’s the main purpose of the writer writing the text?

A. To advise readers to start their writing.

B. To explain the importance of writing.

C. To persuade readers to become writers.

D. To increase readers’ brain power.

“Love your neighbor as yourself" is a saying familiar to most of us. It means that you must have the ability to love and accept yourself in order to form and keep satisfying relationship with others. Self-esteem means accepting yourself for who you really are, and believing that you are indeed a worthwhile person who is deserving of love and respect from others.

Self-esteem is our sense of how good we feel about ourselves. It is based on our judgment of ourselves, not on other people's assessment, but simply on our own. Our self-esteem is not dependent on our talent. Some very ordinary people feel very good about themselves, while other extraordinarily high achievers hold low opinions of themselves.

Self-esteem is the primary key to long-term stress management. Why? The first three sources of stress are: predictable life event, unexpected changes and build-up of daily stresses. These are much easier to handle when we believe in ourselves. A positive, healthy self-esteem gives us the “hardiness” (強健) to deal with the difficulties of life, and to see them as challenges to be met, rather than threats to be feared.

The fourth category of stress is entirely the result of a low self-esteem. It is the category of stress that is most common and tiring over the long run. This kind of stress cannot be overcome, or even changed, until the self-esteem problems that cause it are corrected.

Learning to love yourself for who you are is the key to overcoming stress. Self-esteem comes from the self, and cannot be promoted by others. A person who feels that his self-esteem comes from the approval of those around him or her is bound to self-destruct (自毀). One cannot keep the level of “performance” required to please everyone else, especially if that performance disagrees with who you are and is simply a facade that makes you popular with the world. When the applause is gone, there is nothing left.

Only those who can feel the strength of knowing who they are and those who can feel good about that will survive the stresses of life. Self-esteem is the basis of contentment and positive living.

1.What is the key to overcoming stress according to the passage?

A. Removing yourself from stressful situation.

B. Learning to love yourself for who you are.

C. Facing the stress and dealing with it.

D. Getting help from friends.

2.What does the underlined word "facade" (in Para 5) mean?

A. A false appearance. B. A big worry.

C. A wrong action. D. A strange feeling.

3.The passage is written to ______.

A. tell people how to overcome stress

B. help people form good relationship with others

C. show the importance of feeling good about yourself

D. provide the different methods to get a clear view of yourself

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從短文后的七個選項中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項。選項中有兩項為多余選項

What is a dream?

For centuries, people have wondered about the strange places that they seem to visit in their sleep. 1. However, they have been valued as necessary to a person's health and happiness.

Historically people thought dreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century that people started to study dreams scientifically believing that they tell about a person's character. 2. He believed that dreams allow a person to express fantasies or fears, which would be socially unacceptable in real life.

The second theory to become popular was Carl Jung's compensation theory. Jung, a former student of Freud, said that the purpose of a dream is not to hide something, but rather to communicate it to the dreamer. 3. Thus, people who think too highly of themselves may dream about falling; those who think too little of themselves dream of being heroes.

Using more recent research, William Domhoff from the University of California found that dreaming is a mental skill that needs time to develop in humans. 4. Until they reach age five, they cannot express very well what their dreams are about. Once people become adults, there is little or no change in their dreams. The dreams of men and women differ. For instance, the characters that appear in the dreams of men are often other men, and often involve physical aggression.

The meaning of dreams continues to be difficult to understand. 5. If you dream that a loved one is going to die, do not panic. The dream may have meaning, but it does not mean that your loved one is going to die.

A. It gives scientists chances to better understand human mind.

B. However, people should not take their dreams as reality.

C. Children do not dream as much as adults.

D. Dreams make up for what is lacking in waking life.

E. First, there was Sigmund Freud’s theory.

F. They think their mind is trying to tell them something.

G. They have been considered as meaningless nighttime journeys.

書面表達（15分）

假設你是李華，周末要去大連玩，大連的姨媽邀請你去她家住，請根據(jù)以下信息給她寫一封回信。

接受邀請；

想念姨媽做的飯菜；

送給姨媽的禮物：李華媽媽織的毛衣；

請姨媽周五晚上7點半接站。

注意：1、 詞數(shù)不少于50； 2、可適當增加細節(jié)，以使行文連貫。3、開頭和結尾已經(jīng)給出

Dear aunt,

Love,

Li Hua

When you get tense(緊張的) about something that happens in your life, you are experiencing stress. Too much stress can cause anger, depression and other related symptoms, which you need to seriously look into.

The following are simple ways that can be used to deal with stress.

Be Gentle with Yourself

There are times when you are not fair to yourself. Often you are harder on yourself than you are on other people. If you can learn to accept yourself just the way you are, especially unconditionally, this would reduce the pressure you apply to yourself.

Exercise

Go for a walk. Go to the shops. You can join a local walk, swim or jog team. If you are tired out from doing housework and haven`t left your workstation, have a stretch. Change your environment for an hour or so.

Stop Comparing Yourself with Others

Often you don`t realize that a great deal of unhappiness is caused by constant comparisons you make. You say, “if only I had a big house like she has…”, “if only my husband were as rich as hers…” The comparison is endless. The only comparison that counts is the comparison between where you were and where you are now . By all means, admire others, congratulate them and be proud of their achievements, but remind yourself that only you can decide the standard（標準） you want to set for yourself.

Talk the Stress Out

Sometimes it helps to share or talk about your stress to close friends or family members. The other person`s active listening can help.

1.The passage is mainly about________.

A. doing exercise is good for your health

B. how to deal with stress in life

C. comparing yourself with others is wrong

D. how to lead a happy life in daily life

2.According to the fifth paragraph, we should________.

A. make comparisons with others constantly

B. remind yourself that you`re unhappy

C. compare with yourself instead of others

D.set the standard of happiness

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A. Comparing with others makes us happy.

B. Too much stress is bad for our health

C. Others put much pressure on us.

D. Talking out our stress might be dangerous

The world is filled with smart, talented, educated and gifted people. We meet them every day. A few days ago, my car was not running well. I pulled it into a garage and the young mechanic (機械師) had it fixed in just a few minutes. He knew what was wrong by simply listening to the engine. I was amazed. The sad truth is: Great talent is not enough.

I am constantly shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of Americans earn more than $100, 000 a year. A business consultant（顧問）who specializes in the medical trade was telling me how many doctors and dentists struggle financially. It was this business consultant who gave me the phrase, “They are one skill away from great wealth.”

There is an old saying that goes, “Job means just over broke (破產(chǎn))”. And unfortunately, I would say that the saying applies to millions of people. Because school does not think financial intelligence is intelligence, most workers “l(fā)ive within their means”. They work and they pay the bills. Instead I recommend to young people to seek work for what they will learn, more than what they will earn.

When I ask the classes I teach, “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonalds ?” almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask, “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonalds makes more money than you?” The answer is obvious: McDonalds is excellent at business systems. The reason so many talented people are poor is that they focus on building a better hamburger and know little or nothing about business systems. The world is filled with talented poor people. They focus on perfecting their skills at building a better hamburger rather than the skills of selling and delivering the hamburger.

1.The author mentions the mechanic in the first paragraph to show that________.

A. he is just one of the talented people

B. he is ready to help others

C. he has a sharp sense of hearing

D. he knows little about car repairing

2.“Live within their means” in the third paragraph can be best replaced by_______ .

A. spend more than they can afford

B. do in their own way

C. live in their own circle

D. live within what they earn

3.Why do talented people earn so little according to the author?

A. They don't work hard enough.

B. They lack financial intelligence.

C. They don't make full use of their talents.

D. They have no specialized skills.

4.The main purpose of the author is to tell us_________ .

A. how young people can find a satisfactory job

B. what schools should teach students

C. why so many talented people are poor

D. how McDonalds makes much money