How should one invest a sum of money in these clays of inflation (通货膨胀)? Left in a bank it will hardly keep its value, however high the interest rate. Only a brave man, or a very rich one, dares to buy and sell on the Stock Market. Today it seems that one of the best ways to protect your savings, and even increase your wealth is to buy beautiful objects from the past. Here I am going to offer some advice on collecting antique clocks, which I personally consider are among the most interesting of antiques.
I sometimes wonder what a being from another planet might report back about our way of life. "The planet Earth is ruled by a mysterious creature that sits or stands in a room and makes a strange ticking sound. It has a face with twelve black marks and two hands. Men can do nothing without its permission, and it fastens its young round people's wrists so that everywhere men go they are still under its control. This creature is the real master of Earth and men are its slaves."
Whether or not we are slaves of time today depends on our culture and personality, but it is believed that many years ago kings kept special slaves to tell the time. Certain men were very clever at measuring the time of clay according to the beating of their own hearts. They were made to stand in a fixed place and every hour or so would shout tire time. So it seems that the first clocks were human beings.
However, men quickly found more convenient and reliable ways of telling the time. They learned to use the shadows cast by the sun. They marked the hours on candles, used sand in hour- glasses, and invented water-clocks. Indeed, any serious student of antique should spend as much time as possible visiting palaces, stately homes and museums to see some of the finest examples of clocks from the past.
Antique clocks could be very expensive, but one of the joys of collecting clocks is that it is still possible to find quite cheap ones for your own home. After all, if you are going to be ruled by time, why not invest in air antique clock and perhaps make a future profit?
1.According to the passage, collecting antique clocks____.
A. can hardly keep the value of your savings
B. will cost much of your savings
C. may increase your wealth
D. needs your bravery
2.By quoting (引用) the remark of a being from another planet, the author intends to____.
A. suggest human beings are controlled by a clock
B. describe why clocks can rule the planet Earth
C. tell readers what clocks look like
D. compare chicks to human beings
3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a way to measure the time?
A. Counting the beating of one's own heart.
B. Making use of candles, sand and water.
C. Observing shadows cast by the sun.
D. Keeping slaves busy day and night.
4.The underlined phrase stately homes in paragraph 4 means
A. state-owned houses
B. houses in very good condition
C. grand houses open to the public
D. houses where statesmen meet regularly
5.The purpose of the passage is
A. to introduce the culture of antique clocks
B. to offer some advice on collecting antique clocks
C. to compare different ways to make a future profit
D. to explain convenient and reliable ways of telling time
Ⅱ. 写作（共两节，满分35分）
第一节：短文填词（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，根据以下提示：1）汉语提示，2）首字母提示，3）语境提示，在每个空格内填入一个适当的英语单词，并将该词完整地写在右边相对应的横线上。所填单词要求意义准确，拼写正确。
注意：本题分A、B两篇，A篇为一级达标学校学生应答题，B篇为非一级达标学校学生应答题。
(A)
Once an American and a Frenchman decided to cross the
sea _____ France and England in balloon in 1784. When they flew 81. ________
high over the w , they suddenly discovered a hole in the 82. ________
balloon. What was_____ (更糟糕), the hole became bigger and bigger. 83. ________
The air keeping the balloon_____ was escaping quickly and the 84. ________
balloon was coming down. _____ (看到) this, the two men threw 85. ________
a their equipment away to make the balloon lighter. It started 86. ________
to r higher again. But soon it again was too close to the water. 87. ________
Finally, the men had _____ choice but to throw away most of 88. ________
their clothes to s themselves. The crowd was very surprised 89. ________
to see this when the balloon_____(降落)in front of them. 90. ________
B.根据句子意思，从方框中选择适当的词组并将其正确形式填入句中横线上
compete in /think highly of/ care about/ agree with/ get familiar with/
make up/sort out/in search of / live in peace with/ make a bargain with
71. It is said that Albert Einstein didn’t__________________clothes.
72. Over the past thirty years, more and more overseas Chinese have come to mainland __________________ family roots.
73. He hoped that he would be__________________in the company.
74. I respect him, but I don’t __________________him on everything.
75. He will __________________the 100 meter race at the school sports meeting.
76. I__________________him that if he taught me English, I would teach him Chinese.
77. The teacher is really good at__________________interesting stories for children.
78. The roommates gradually learned to __________________one another.
79. I lived in London for six years and gradually__________________the people and the culture.
80. Jenny__________________the clothes, some to be kept, some to be thrown away.
第Ⅱ卷（满分50分）
Ⅰ. 词汇应用（共15小题；每小题1分，满分15分）
A.根据句子意思及汉语提示在横线上填入恰当的单词（注意词形变化）
66. She worked day and night and now she （应得到）a good rest.
67. The country’s best artists spent ten years （装饰）the Amber Room with gold and jewels.
68. （个人而言）speaking, I don’t like the way he spoke to me.
69. We all dream of our country becoming more and more （强大）.
70. Some actors can not sing well and they just （假装）to sing during the broadcasts.
The World Health Organization raised the pandemic(流行病) flu alert(警戒) to six, the highest level, which means that the H1N1 swine flu is spreading world-wide.
The WHO will ask all countries, including the countries that haven’t yet reported any cases, to make plans to control this disease.
“It was reported that about 35,000 people infected with the H1N1 virus in 74 counties,” Margaret Chan, an officer of the WHO, said on Thursday. “Further spread of the disease is possible,” Ms Chan said. So far, WHO doesn’t expect a sudden jump in the number of serious or dead cases reported.
In Australia, the number of people who got the flu became more than three times as many as before in the past week, reaching 1,263 on Thursday, when three new ones were reported in this country. It recorded its first case of the disease on May 9. “Australia tells us not because of the number of cases, but because of the strong facts of community transmission(群体性传播),” said the spokesman for the World Health Organization. He said the WHO is also watching on similar evidence in the UK, Spain, Japan and Chile.
In Hong Kong, the government on Thursday ordered the nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools to close for two weeks after a dozen students at one school tested positive for swine flu. Elsewhere in Asia, health officials in Thailand found 30 new H1N1 cases, raising the total there to 46.
54. How many levels does WHO use to warn people against the pandemic flu?
A. Five. B. Six. C. Seven. D. Eight.
55. WHO raised the pandemic flu alert to the highest level because .
A. all countries in the world have reported dead cases
B. there is a sudden jump in the number of cases reported
C. there is no medicine to cure this flu
D. it is spreading in the world
56. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. The number of people who got the flu has dropped slightly in the past week in Australia.
B. The WHO ask the countries that have reported cases to make plans to control the disease.
C. The number of people who got the flu reached more than 1,000 in Australia on Thursday.
D. The Hong Kong government ordered all schools to close for two weeks on Thursday.
57. This passage mainly tells us something about .
A. WHO’s raising the pandemic flu alert
B. how to prevent this kind of flu
C. people who got the pandemic flu
D. the ways to avoid the serious pandemic flu
第三部分 阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列段文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
A poor traveller stopped under the tree to eat the boiled rice and vegetables which he had brought with him. A few metres away, there was a small shop by the side of the road where a woman was frying (油炸)fish and selling it to travelers. The woman watched the poor traveler carefully, and when he finished his food and began to go, she shouted rudely, “You haven’t paid me for the fried fish!”
“But I have not had any fried fish!” he said.
“But everyone can see that you enjoyed the smell of my fried fish with your rice and vegetables,” said the woman, “If you had not smelled the fish, your meal would not have been so pleasant!”
Soon a crowd collected, and although they supported the poor traveler, they had to admit that wind was blowing from the shop to the place where he had eaten, and that it had carried the smell of the fried fish to him.
Finally, the woman took the poor traveler to a judge, who said, “The woman says that the traveler ate his meal with the smell of her fried fish. The traveler agrees that the wind was blowing from the woman’s shop to the place where he ate his rice and vegetables, and that it carried the smell of her fried fish to his nose while he was eating, so he must pay for it. What does your fried fish cost?” he asked the woman.
“Twenty-five cents a plate,” she answered, delighted.
“Then go outside together,” said the judge. “There the traveler must hold up a twenty-five-cent piece so that its shadow（影子）falls on the woman’s hand. The price of the smell of a plate of fried fish is the shadow of twenty-five cents.”
51. The traveler refused to pay the woman for the fried fish because .
A. he was poor B. he was rude
C. he was supported by a crowd D. he hadn’t eaten her fried fish at all
52. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. The traveler bought the boiled rice and vegetables and ate them by the side of the road.
B. The judge had no idea what the woman meant.
C. In the fifth paragraph, the first “it” has the same meaning as the second “it”.
D. The woman got nothing but the shadow of twenty-five cents in the end.
53. The best title for the passage should be .
A. The Smell and the Shadow
B. A Poor Traveler
C. A Rude Woman
D. A Woman and a Traveler
