Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless,” he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits (成就). Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.
Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy,’ ” Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter(遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
1.The turning point in Saunders’ life came when _______.
A. he started to play ball games
B. he got a mountain bike at age 15
C. he ran his first marathon at age 18
D. he started to receive Ridgway’s training
2.We can learn from the text that Ridgway _______.
A. dismissed Saunders’ dream as fantasy
B. built up his body together with Saunders
C. hired Saunders for his cold-water experience
D. won his fame for his voyage across the Atlantic
3.What do we know about Saunders?
A. He once worked at a school in Scotland.
B. He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.
C. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.
D. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.
4.The underlined word “Intrigued” in the third paragraph probably means_______.
A. Excited B. Convinced C. Delighted D. Fascinated
5.It can be inferred that Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ________.
A. was accompanied by his old playmates
B. set a record in the North Pole expedition
C. was supported by other Arctic explorers
D. made him well-known in the 1960s
Among rich countries, people in the United States work the longest hours. They work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.
In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to “spend” a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be greatly lower taxes in America, which increase the rewards to work. Another may be more satisfying work, or less satisfying personal lives.
Longer hours do of course increase the GDP (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say, France. The United States also has more of its people at work, while in France many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home. The overall result is that American GDP per head is 40% higher than in France, even though productivity per hour worked is the same.
It is not clear which of the two situations is better. As we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in interest. It is too early to explain the different trends（趋势）in happiness over time in different countries. But it is a disappointing idea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has risen in Europe. Could this have anything to do with trends in the work-life balance?
1.From the text we know that the author .
A. believes that longer working hours is better
B. prefers shorter working hours to longer ones
C. says nothing certain about which pattern is better
D. thinks neither of the patterns is good
2.Which of the following countries has more of its people at work?
A. Spain. B. France. C. Germany. D. America.
3.In the last paragraph, the underlined word “which” refers to ______.
A. family life B. situations C. other values D. trends
4.What message can we get from the text?
A. The GDP of Europe is higher than that of America.
B. Two possible reasons are given for working longer hours in the US.
C. People all over the world choose to work less when they are richer.
D. Americans are happier than Europeans.
5.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Americans and Europeans B. Staying at Home
C. Work and Productivity D. Work and Happiness
阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填人一个适当的
词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡的相应位置上。
We took our children out with us, and it was 1.(help). When Ryan was two, we went to dinner with 2.(marry) friends and their son, also two. While Ryan ate his dinner, the other boy 3.(run) around the chairs and crawling under the table. At two, Ryan 4.(be) to restaurants many times, but 5.the other boy this was only his second restaurant visit.
Not having had the opportunity to experience different things, 6.sons might have turned out like 7.two-year-old son of one of our friends, 8.mother is afraid to even take him to the grocery store 9.he acts up. Instead, she shops alone. Certainly he's off to a slow start in experiencing the things in life that may 10.(late) be important to him.
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Everyone has experienced trying but failing to master a difficult book, which was begun with the hope of increasing one's understanding. When that happens, it is 1to think that it was a mistake to try to read it, but that was not the mistake. The mistake was in 2too much from the first reading of a(n) 3book. If you read it in the right way, no book written for the 4reader, no matter how difficult, need be a cause for despair (绝望).
What is the right method? The 5is an important and helpful rule of reading that is either not known or often forgotten. That rule is simply this: when reading a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever 6to think about the things that you do not understand immediately.
Do not be stopped by what you can't understand. Read through the difficult 7, and you’ll soon come to things that you do understand. Read these 8. You will have a much better chance of understanding all of the book when you read it again, but that 9you to have read the book through once 10.
What you understand by reading the book through to the 11will help you when you try later to read the places that you did not 12in your first reading. Or if you never re-read the book, understanding half of it is much better than understanding nothing of it, which will happen if you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult part of the book.
Most of us were taught to 13the things that we do not understand. We were told to find the 14of unfamiliar words, and to try to find an explanation in another 15for anything that we did not understand in the book that we were reading. But when these things are done before the proper time, they only harm our reading, instead of helping it.
1.A. necessary B. useful C. natural D. effective
2.A. learning B. hoping C. accepting D. expecting
3.A. easy B. difficult C. important D. correct
4.A. ordinary B. young C. serious D. sincere
5.A. method B. question C. answer D. problem
6.A. starting B. hesitating C. stopping D . repeating
7.A. words B. articles C. parts D. points
8.A. quickly B. immediately C. clearly D. carefully
9.A. requires B. causes C. advises D. allows
10.A. later B. after C. before D. again
11.A. top B. end C. bottom D. cover
12.A. see B. turn C. notice D. understand
13.A. put away B. put down C. think aloud D. think about
14.A. uses B. meanings C. spellings D. troubles
15.A. thinking B. reading C. book D. way
你校将出版校庆英文特刊介绍学校的相关情况，你将参与编写工作。
写作内容 ：请根据以下构思图，写一份关于你校植物园的英语简介。
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参考词汇∶植物园 botanical garden
写作要求： 只能使用5个句子表达全部内容。评分标准： 句子结构准确，信息内容完整，篇章结构连贯。
1.She entered the lab without ______________(许可)
2.The article is _____________ (限制)to 800 words.
3.Anderson was in bed with all his clothes on, _______(躺)awake all night long thinking of them.
4.She told us an ________________(难以置信) story .
5.I must a____________ for not being able to meet you at the airport because I was busy at that time..
6.It’s important to know your own strengths and w_______ .
7.After taking the medicine, Tom is s___________________ better today.
8.After waiting for a long time, we grew a little ___________(不耐心)
9.At first s______, it looked like a simple accident, but later the police became suspicious.
10.The p_________________ look on his face suggested that he didn’t understand the maths problem.
11.The store gives a 10% d__________________ for its VIP customers.
12.When I try to understand __________ it is that prevents children from getting fat, it seems to me that there are two reasons.
13.Meeting my uncle after all these years was an unforgettable moment, __________that I will always treasure.
14.She’d like to offer money to ____ needs it to continue his or her study.
15.Evidence came up specific speech sounds are recognized by babies as young as 6 months old.
