The city of Venice，in  Italy，is one of a kind．It is built on more than 120 islands，just
off arrival．After explaining where my new house was，I told him that I had left the key under
the doormat．Since I knew it would be quite late before I could get back，I suggested that
be make himself at home and help himself to anything that was kept in the refrigerator（冰箱）．
     Two hours later my friend phoned me from the house．At the moment，he said，he was
listening to some of my records after having had a nice meal．He had found the pan and meat
in the refrigerator．Now，he was drinking a cup of tea and hoped that I would join him soon．
When I asked him if he bad any difficulty finding the house，he answered that the only problem 
 was that he had not been able to find the key under the doormat，but luckily，the living room
window by the apple tree had been left open and  he had climbed in through the window．I
listened to all this in great surprise．There is no apple tree outside my window，but there is one
by the living room window of my next-door  neighbor’s house！

1．When my friend arrived，I could not go to meet him because________．

A．we were not good friends        
]B．I was busy at work
C．he had not told me that he would come  
D．I did not want to see him

2．A doormat is a mat______

A．used as a door        
B．for cleaning the bottom of shoes
C. put up on a door as an ornament（裝飾物）
D．near a door under which people put their keys

3．I listened to my friend’s phone call in great surprise because____．

A．he had not waited for me to eat together
B．he had eaten too much of the food
C．he mistook my neighbor’s house for mine
D．he had left the house with the window open

4．At last my friend______．

A．did not enter my house
B．entered my house after he opened the door
C．entered my house by climbing through the window
D．entered my house with the help of my neighbor

5．The writer left the key under the doormat so that______．

A．nobody would find it
B．he might not lose it
C．his family could use the same key
D．his friend could easily get it

     Driving to a friend's house on a recent evening, I was attracted by the sight of the full moon rising just
above my friend's rooftops. I stopped to watch it for a few moments, thinking about what a pity it was
that most city people, myself included, usually miss sights like this because we spend most of our lives
indoors.
     My friend had also seen it. He grew up living in a forest in Europe, and the moon meant a lot to him
then. It had touched much of his life.
     I know the feeling. Last December I took my seven-year-old daughter to the mountainous jungle of
northern India with some friends. We stayed in a forest rest-house with no electricity or running hot
water. Our group had campfires(篝火) outside every night, and indoors when it was too cold outside.
The moon grew to its fullest during our trip. Between me and the high mountains lay three or four valleys. Not a light shone in them and not a sound could be heard. It was one of the quietest places I have ever
known, a bottomless well of silence. And above me was the full moon, which struck me deeply.   
     Today our lives are filled with glass, metal, plastic and fibre-glass. We have televisions, cell phones,
pagers, electricity, heaters and ovens and air-conditioners, cars, computers.
     Struggling through traffic that evening at the end of a tiring day, most of it spent indoors, I thought:
before long, I would like to live in a small cottage. There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk
in the mountains. I may become an old man there, and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and
measure out my life in coffee spoons. But I will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touch
the moon.

1. The best title for the passage would be______.

A. Touched by the moon        
B. The pleasures of modern life
C. A bottomless well of silence  
D. Break away from modern life  

2. The writer felt sorry for himself because________.

A. there was too much pollution
B. he seldom enjoyed the fullest moon outsides
C. he didn't adapt to modern inventions
D. there were too many accidents on the road

3. What impressed the writer most in the mountainous jungle of northern India?

A. No modern equipment      
B. Complete silence.
C. The nice moonlight        
D. The high mountains

4. Modern things (Paragraph 4) are mentioned mainly to______.

A. show that the writer likes city life very much
B. tell us that people greatly benefit from modern life
C. explain that people have fewer chances to enjoy nature
D. show that we can also enjoy nature at home through them

     Trait was an experienced safecracker who never used force -either against people or safes
(保險箱). He was a real artist of his trade and it took him only 19 minutes to open the most
difficult safe he had ever encountered. In about 10 years, helped by his brother Stefan and two
friends, he took about $330,000 -from the safes of 28 banks in Austria. On his last job, early
in 1999, he left the safe door open and $80,000 behind. With the money was a note, "We don’t
need all that much."
     A witness (目擊者) recognized his car and Strait was caught by the police. Then he was
sent to Austria’s Stein Prison to serve a six-year sentence. He boasted (吹噓) at his trial that
he would continue breaking the law, "I am a thief and I shall use every opportunity." Despite
the warning, prison officials moved Strait to the prison’s blacksmith (鐵匠) shop. One day during
the week before Christmas, Strait disappeared. Searchers found all his doors were well locked.
Strait had managed to make a set of keys and let himself out.
     Not to freedom, though. After crossing into Bavaria, Strait attracted the suspicion (懷疑) of
German customs police on purpose and got himself arrested. "I want to be in a German prison,
"he explained to the surprised police. "As German courts give much milder (溫和的) sentences
for crimes like mine and will reduce the time I would otherwise have served in Stein Prison."
     In prison, Strait persuaded his keepers to let him make a Christmas Eve telephone call to his
former keeper, Karl Schreiner of Stein Prison. "I’m sorry if I caused trouble. I didn’t want to
embarrass anybody by escaping. Conditions weren’t that bad. In fact the food was better than
it is here."

1. The underlined word "safecracker" in the first paragraph means "_________".

A. prisoner      
B. criminal    
C. stealer    
D. Robber

2. What’s the correct order of the following events?______
a. Strait was caught by German customs police.
b. Strait left a note in the bank.
c. Strait was sent to Stein Prison.
d. Strait worked in a blacksmith shop.
e. Strait escaped from prison.

A. d-b-a-c-e    
B. b-a-c-d-e      
C. b-c-d-e-a    
D. d-b-c-e-a

3. What helped Strait escape from prison? ______  

A. His living alone in prison.
B. His good relations with the prison officials.
C. His cooperation with other prisoners.
D. His working in the blacksmith shop.

4. Strait was finally caught because _______.    

A. his car was recognized by someone
B. he left a note in the bank safe
C. he was recognized by customs police
D. he made a phone call to his former keeper

5. Strait preferred to serve his time in Germany because _______.

A. he hated working in the blacksmith shop in the Austrian prison
B. the life of prisoners in Germany was better than those in Austria’s
C. he wouldn’t have to stay that long in a German prison
D. he could escape more easily from a German prison

     A Scotsman and an Englishman lived next door to each other. The Scotsman owned a hen
and each morning he would look in his garden and pick up his hen’s egg for breakfast. One
morning he looked into his garden and saw that the hen had laid an egg in the Englishman’s garden.
     He was about to go next door when he saw the English-man pick up the egg. The Scotsman
ran up to the English-man and told him that the egg belonged to him because he owned the hen.
The Englishman disagreed because the egg was on his property(財產(chǎn)).
     They argued for a while until finally the Scotsman said, "In my family we normally settle disputes
by the following actions: We kick each other and we compare the time how long it takes us to
get back up. Whoever gets up quicker wins the egg."
     The Englishman agreed to this, so the Scotsman found his heaviest pair of boots and put
them on. He took a few steps back, then ran toward the Englishman and kicked as hard as he
could in his stomach.
     The Englishman fell to the floor, holding his stomach and howling in pain for 10 minutes.
Eventually the English-man stood up and said, "Now it’s my turn to kick you." At this time,
the Scotsman said, "Aye Lad, maybe you should just keep the egg."

1. What do we know about the hen?_____

A. It belonged to the two men equally.
B. It laid an egg every other day.
C. Its eggs were usually cooked by the Scotsman as breakfast. 
D. It usually laid eggs in the Englishman’s garden.

2. The underlined word "disputes" in Paragraph 3 means "_______".

A. arguments    
B. wars    
C. plans      
D. Debts

3. What’s the real purpose of the Scotsman’s proposal (提議)?_____

A. He wanted to get his egg back from the Englishman.
B. He wanted to solve their dispute.
C. He wanted to teach the Englishman a lesson.
D. He wanted to find out who was the stronger of them.

    Diving around Halaveli Island was a really unforgettable experience. I participated in a day
diving trip that had lunch on the boat. We went to Maalhoss Thila first. The current (水流) can
be very strong here but we were lucky and had a mild one. We enjoyed all the different colors
of coral and fish. The maximum depth of this dive was 30m, and we stayed for about 40 minutes.
The water was reasonably warm, so I was not cold only wearing a short-sleeved wetsuit.
     I was a bit worried about having lunch on the boat, as sometimes my stomach feels bad, but it
was perfectly fine this time -perhaps because the boat had not stopped and was moving toward
the other dive place, or because the size of the boat was reasonably large.
     Our next diving place was called Manta. And as expect-ed, the huge Manta was soon around
us. It is one of the most exciting moments I have had in my life. We only dove to 14m this time,
which allowed us to stay a bit longer -almost 50 minutes.
     On the way back all the women took strategic position on the deck, sunbathing and relaxing,
while the men were getting bored and ate the leftovers from lunch. No matter how different we
were, we all enjoyed our trip.
     Another dive I would like to recommend(推薦)is called Maaya Thila, and it is the best night
dive I have ever had. We saw a huge turtle sleeping in a cave, and sharks playfully chasing each
other. They did not look friendly at all, but fortunately they did not decided to have us for dinner.
But anyway what happened that night under water will remain a fond memory to be retold on
special occasions by all the participants. It will be told with a smile on our faces.

1. What information can we get from the passage?_____

A. The author enjoyed different colors of fish in Manta.
B. Diving in Maaya Thila is one of the most unforgettable experience for the author.
C. The author dove into Maaya Thila and stayed there for 50 minutes.
D. There were no dangerous sharks in Maaya Thila.

2. The author was worried about having lunch on the boat because ______

A. the boat was not stopped
B. it was moving toward the other dive place
C. the boat was not big enough
D. he / she felt sick when eating on boats

3. How many diving places are mentioned in the passage?

A. 1.    
B. 2.    
C. 3.    
D. 4.

4. We learn from the last paragraph that ________. 

A. Maaya Thila was only suitable for a night dive
B. many people had been killed at Maaya Thila
C. Maaya Thila is popular among all the participants
D. few people have the courage to dive at Maaya Thila

5. The author wrote this passage to ________.   

A. share some wonderful experiences of diving with readers
B. make an attractive advertisement for a famous park
C. give you some tips when you go out for a dive
D. tell the readers how to spend a weekend or a long holiday

    It was Monday. Mrs. Smith's dog was hungry, but there was not any meat in the house.
    Considering that there was no better way. Mrs. Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the
following words on it:"Give my dog half a pound of meat."Then she gave the paper to her dog
and said gently:"Take this to the butcher(* person whose job is selling meat)and he's going to
give you your lunch today."
Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher's. It gave the paper to the
butcher. The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady's handwriting and
soon did it as he was asked to. The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once.
At noon, the dog came to the shop again. It gave the butcher a piece of paper again. After
reading it, he gave it half a pound of meat once more.
The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon. And as usual, it brought a piece of paper in
the mouth. This time, the butcher did not take a look at paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he
had regarded the dog as one of his customers(*people who buy sth. from a shop).
But, the dog came again at four o'clock. And the same thing happened once again. To the butcher's
more surprise, it came for the third time at six o'clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper.
The butcher felt a bit puzzled. He  said to himself,"This is a small dog. Why does Mrs. Smith give
it so much meat to eat today?"
     Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!

1. Mrs. Smith treated her little dog quite    .

A. cruelly
B. fairly  
C. kindly
D. friendly

2. It seemed that the dog knew well that the paper Mrs. Smith gave it ______ .

A. might do it much harm
B. could do it much good
C. would help the butcher
D. was worth many pounds

3. The butcher did not give any meat to the dog __________ .

A. before he felt sure that the words were really written by Mrs. Smith
B. when he found that the words on the paper were not clear
C. because he had sold out all the meat in his shop
D. until he was paid enough by Mrs. Smith

4. From its experience, the dog found that ________.

A. only the paper with Mrs. Smith's words in it could bring it meat
B. the butcher would give the meat to it whenever he saw it
C. Mrs. Smith would pay for the meat it got from the butcher
D. a piece of paper could bring it half a pound of meat

5. At the end of the story, you'll find that _______.

A. the dog was clever enough to write on the paper
B. the dog dared not go to the butcher's any more
C. the butcher was told not to give any meat to the dog
D. the butcher found himself cheated by the clever animal

       I was in New York the other day and rode with a friend in a taxi. When we got out, my friend
said to the driver, "Thank you for the ride. You did a good job of driving."
       The taxi driver was shocked for a second. Then he said, "Are you a wise man or something?"
      "No, my dear man, and I'm not putting you on. I like the way you keep cool in heavy traffic."
      "Yeah," the driver said and drove off.
      "What was that all about?" I asked.
      "I am trying to bring love back to New York," he said. "I believe it's the only thing that can save
the city."
      " How can one man save New York?"
       "It's not one man. I believe I have made that taxi driver's day. Suppose he has 20 fares(乘客).
He's going to be nice to those 20 fares because someone was nice to him. Those fares in turn will be
kinder to their shopkeepers or waiters or even their own families. Finally the goodwill could go to at
least 1000 people. Now that isn't bad, is it?"
      "But you're depending on that taxi driver to pass your goodwill to others."
      "I'm not depending on it," my friend said. "I might deal with ten different people today. If out of ten
I can make three happy, then I can have an effect on 3000 more people."
      "It sounds good on paper," I said, "but I'm not sure it works in practice."
       "Nothing is lost if it doesn't. It didn't take any of my time to tell that man he was doing a good job.
He neither received a larger tip nor a smaller tip. If it fell on deaf ears, so what? Tomorrow there will
be another taxi driver I can try to make happy."

1. When the driver heard my friend's words, he at first became____.  

A. excited.  
B. angry  
C. pleased    
D. surprised

2. Why did the writer's friend praise the driver?  

A. Because he hoped to take the driver's taxi again.
B. Because he hoped to bring love to the city.
C. Because the driver moved him really.
D. Because the driver often helped him.

3. What does the writer think of his friend's idea?  

A. It's not a good idea.
B. It's not easy to carry out.
C. It's funny.
D. It's a little interesting.

4. We can learn from the passage that____. 

A. the writer tried to make the taxi driver happy.
B. the writer's friend wanted to be a good taxi driver.
C. the writer's friend did his best to make the world better.
D. the writer's plan would fail if the taxi driver didn't listen to him.

      The phone rang loudly next to her ear as she sat at the computer. Sarah picked it up; hoping
it wasn't for her, because she really didn't feel like talking to anyone. She uttered a  monotonous
(沉悶的 ) , " Hello?" " Hi  Sarah! !This is Mindy! What's up?? Umm, the reason that called was
that I need help with the English assignment. I've been having trouble coming up with a topic. "
      Sarah's shoulders silently drooped as she realized that she had completely forgotten about the
homework to witness or be a part of a situation and write it in down in great detail. She let out a sigh.
       As her best friend continued to talk about her topic ideas, Sarah's mind drifted. She thought
about how Mindy was moving 500 miles away in less than a month. She thought about how much
she'd miss her friend and how it wouldn't be the same without her.
         "So, do you have any idea what I should do about this assignment? "Mindy asked, bringing
Sarah out of her fog. She answered her own question, suddenly exclaiming, "I know! !  I'll describe
what happened today in the lunch line! I just wanted to ring that Jennifer girl's neck! !  SHE WAS
SO RUDE! "'
         Sarah thought back to earlier in the day when they had been in the lunch line, waiting patiently
and a snotty(自大的)girl pushed her way up in front of them, causing Mindy and Sarah to lose their
place in line.
          "That sounds like a good idea. I wish I'd thought of that, "Sarah says softly. The conversation
ended quickly after that and Sarah was feeling better. She was still sad that her best friend was moving,
but she knew that they would keep in touch and always be close. At just that moment, Sarah was glad
that Mindy called. She now had the perfect topic for her English assignment.

1. What do we know about Sarah when the phone rang first ?           

A. She was in low spirits.
B. She was busy working.
C. She was doing her assignment.
D. She was repairing the computer.

2. Mindy called Sarah to___________.           

A. inform Sarah of her leaving
B. say that she was missing Sarah
C. ask Sarah for help
D. comfort Sarah   

3. How did Sarah feel about Mindy's moving?                  

A. She was sad that she would miss her friend.
B. She di4n't quite care about it.
C. She was surprised because Mindy hadn't told her earlier.
D. She was sad that Mindy would forget her.

4. Why was Sarah feeling better after their telephone conversation ended?          

A. Because she finally thought of what she could write about.
B. Because she knew that she and Mindy would keep in touch.
C. Because Mindy could act bravely to protect them at school.
D. Because Mindy would never trouble her with a question any more.