Long bus rides are like television shows. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end with commercials thrown in every three or four minutes. The commercials are unavoidable. They happen whether you want them or not. Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by outside the bus window. Buy Super Clean Toothpaste." "Drink Good Wet Root Beer." "Fill up with Pacific Gas." Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of "You Need It! Buy It Now!"

    The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you've traveled that way before. Usually some things have changed new houses, new buildings, sometimes even a new road. The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so. If the driver is, particularly reckless ( 魯莽的 ) or daring, the ride can be as thrilling as a suspense story. Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left hand lane? After a while, of course, the excitement dies down. Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride. Food always makes bus tides more interesting. But you've got to be careful of what kind of food you eat. Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops,

   The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning. You know it will soon be over and there's a kind of expectation and excitement in that. The seat of course, has become harder as the hours have passed. By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the armrests even with your hands crossed behind your head. The end comes just at no more ways to sit.

According to the passage, what do the passengers usually see when they are on a long bus trip?

   A. Buses on the road.                      B. Films on television.

   C. Advertisements on the billboards.          D. Gas stations.

What is the purpose of this passage?         

   A. To give the writer's opinion about long bus trips.

   B. To persuade you to take a long bus trip.    

   C. To explain how bus trips and television shows differ.

   D. To describe the billboards along the road.

The writer of this passage would probably favor_____.

   A. bus drivers who aren't reckless            B. driving alone

   C. a television set on the bus               D. no billboards along the road

The writer feels long bus rides are like TV shows because_____.

   A. the commercials both on TV shows and on-billboards along the road are fun

   B. they both have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with commercials in between

   C. the drivers are always reckless on TV shows just as they are on buses

   D. both traveling and watching TV are not exciting

閱讀短文內(nèi)容，從短文后的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。

"No man is an island" is a well-known line from John Donne's Devotion, written more than three hundred years ago. Even now people still agree with him. Without other people, life became empty and sad.

For some of us, though making friends is not difficult, we may not want to make the first move. It is also difficult at times to keep the friends we already have.

There are many books about friendship, but Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence(影響) People, written in 1936, is the most famous. It was later put into 28 languages.

Here is the list of advice from his book:

Always greet with a smile. Begin with "excuse me" or "would you please", when you want to ask somebody. Remember to say "thank you" and try to be as helpful as you can.

Go out of your way to be nice.

Making some soup for a sick neighbour may seem like a little thing to you, but it will make your neighbour feel a lot better.

Remember names.

They say that the sweetest music to a person's ears is the sound of his or her own name.

Try to understand other people's ways and ideas and learn something from them.

Listen patiently.

When someone is talking to you, look at him or her, listen carefully and say something when necessary.

A. This "How to" book about getting along with other people became a best seller.

B. It's also important to keep close friends in our daily life.

C. So we all need to have friends.

D. Be open-minded.

E. Be friendly and polite.

F. Try to help your friends get out of trouble.

G. Find some time to do special things for other people. 

Two years ago, the 9-year-old girl set up ___ organization named Angel to help ____ homeless.

   A. the;                 B.  ; the                     C. an; a                       D. an; the

對話填空（共10小題；每小題1分，滿分10分）

L＝Li Ying     X＝Xie Fei

( Xie Fei seems to be upset , so Li Ying goes to talk with him )

L: Hi , Xie Fei . What do you f        like doing during the coming winter holiday ?

X: I may have lots of things to do .

L : Don’t be upset . What happened ?

X: My parents plan toa         a baby in this winter vacation in s       of my opinion .

L: So you’ll have to looka       the baby . But why ?

X: They think I’veg       into bad habits and I’m especially lazy and impatient . They seem a little d         with me . They think taking care of a baby will possibly change me . But I don’t think I’m lazy . You know I have little housework to do , because my family is a t        one-child family .

L: In my opinion , their decision is reasonable . You’ll understand them f         .

X: I hope so .

( On the first day of the new term , Li Ying comes across Xie Fei on the way to school )

L : How was your winter vacation ?

X: It’s great . I have learned a lot . During the holiday , I have learned to do with a great d      of housework and how to care about others . Taking care of a baby made me more responsible .

L: That’s great . As thes       goes , “ No pains , no gains . ”

X: Yes , I agree with you .

It’s ________ most beautiful furniture , by which I was struck at the first sight and I determined to take ________ possession of it some day .

A. the ; ×                            B. a ; /                         C. a ; the               D. / ; /

Don’t ___that all these who get good grades at school will be surely successful in the future.

He came to a point ______ there was no more road to follow, and before him he could see nothing but a thick forest.

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

As you can see, the number of the students ______rising these days.

A. keep                   B. was keeping         C. were keeping         D. keeps

Misery and setbacks are not always as terrible as one imagines. Hard times can offer new ways of looking at life that would otherwise never be known. And, if you are a writer, this can be the source of much of your success.

     Popular British author, Charles Dickens' （1812-1870）family could hardly make ends meet. They could only afford to send one of their six children to school. Dickens was not that child. His parents chose to send a daughter, who had a talent for music, to an academy. Then at the age of 12, Dickens' life took another turn for the worse.

His father, a clerk, was placed in prison for unpaid debts. And, being the oldest male left at home, Dickens took up work at a factory. His horrible experience there became the fuel for his future writing. His father was freed three months later and inherited a small amount of money. Dickens was then sent to school.

From 1836 to 1837, he wrote a monthly series of stories. Thus the Pickwick Papers, came into being, which brought fame to the 23-year-old man.

Throughout his career, Dickens covers various situations in his novels. He wrote about the miserable lives of the poor in Oliver Twist, the French Revolution in Tale of Two Cities, and social reform in Hard Times. He also wrote David Copperfield, a book thought to be modeled on his own life.

“I do not write bitterly or angrily: for I know all these things have worked together to make me what I am,” he once said. His difficult childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as well as his writing career. There are shades of young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.

Like the author, all these characters come from poor beginnings and are able to rise above their setbacks and achieve success. “Minds, like bodies, will often fall into an ill-conditioned state from too much comfort,” he once wrote. On June 9th, 1870, aged 58, Dickens died, leaving one unfinished work．The words on his tombstone read: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed, and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.”

The book that first called public attention to Dickens was ______.

       A．the Pickwick Papers               B．Oliver Twist

       C．Tale of Two Cities                D．David Copperfield

The phrase “shades of” in bold means “_____”.

       A．various shapes of            B．situations of

       C．different experiences of     D．reminders of

How did Dickens see his childhood?

       A．He felt grateful for it．

       B．He felt it a pity that things weren’t in his favor．

       C．He loved writing about it．

       D．He chose to forget the bitterness about it．

From the story, we can see Dickens’ attitude towards an easy life is ______．

       A．to enjoy it                    B．to hate it

       C．not to abandon yourself to it     D．to work hard for it

Who’s in control of your life? Who is pulling your string? For the majority of us, it’s other people—society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿), their passions a quotation.”

So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix (一劑毒品). We worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.

But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom—the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda, and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process.

So how can we take back control? I think there’s only one way—make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values---not values imposed（強加）from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic, effective, purposeful and happy life.

What Oscar Wilde says implies that _____________.

A. we have thoughts similar to those of others

B. most people have a variety of thoughts

C. most people’s thoughts are controlled by others

D. other people’s thoughts are more important

What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph ?

A. We may lose ourselves to please others.

B. Changing opinions may cost us our freedom.

C. We need to pay for what we want to get.

D. The price of taking drugs is freedom.

In order to live a happy, effective and purposeful life, we should _________.

A. care about others’ opinions and change opinions all the time

B. guide ourselves by means of values from the outside

C. persuade others to accept our opinions

D. stick to our own values

It can be concluded from the passage that __________.

A. we shouldn’t care what others think     B. it’s better to do what we like

C. we shouldn't change our own opinions   D. it’s important to accept others’ opinions