Samuel Osmond is a 19-year-old law student from Cornwall, England. He never studied the piano. However, he can play very difficult musical pieces by musicians such as Chopin and Beethoven just a few minutes after he hears them. He learns a piece of music by listening to it in parts. Then he thinks about the notes in his head. Two years ago, he played his first piece Moonlight Sonata（奏鸣曲）by Beethoven. He surprised everyone around him.
Amazed that he remembered this long and difficult piece of music and played it perfectly, his teachers say Samuel is unbelievable .They say his ability is very rare, but Samuel doesn’t even realize that what he can do is special. Samuel wanted to become a lawyer as it was the wish of his parents, but music teachers told him he should study music instead. Now, he studies law and music.
Samuel can’t understand why everyone is so surprised. “I grew up with music. My mother played the piano and my father played the guitar. About two years ago, I suddenly decided to start playing the piano, without being able to read music and without having any lessons. It comes easily to me ---I hear the notes and can bear them in mind---each and every note,” says Samuel.
Recently, Samuel performed a piece during a special event at his college. The piece had more than a thousand notes. The audience was impressed by his amazing performance. He is now learning a piece that is so difficult that many professional pianists can’t play it. Samuel says confidently,” It’s all about super memory---I guess I have that gift.”
However, Samuel’s ability to remember things doesn’t stop with music. His family says that even when he was a young boy, Samuel heard someone read a story, and then he could retell the story word for word.
Samuel is still only a teenager. He doesn’t know what he wants to do in the future. For now, he is just happy to play beautiful music and continue his studies.
1.What is special about Samuel Osmond?
A. He has a gift for writing music.
B. He can write down the note he hears.
C. He is a top student at the law school.
D. He can play the musical piece he hears.
2.What can we learn from Paragraph 2?
A. Samuel chose law against the wish of his parents.
B. Samuel planned to be a lawyer rather than a musician.
C. Samuel thinks of himself as a man of great musical ability.
D. Samuel studies law and music on the advice of his teachers.
3.Everyone around Samuel was surprised because he _________.
A. received a good early education in music
B. played the guitar and the piano perfectly
C. could play the piano without reading music
D. could play the guitar better than his father
4.What can we infer about Samuel in Paragraph 4?
A. He became famous during a special event at his college.
B. He is proud of his ability to remember things accurately.
C. He plays the piano better than many professional pianists.
D. He impressed the audience by playing all the musical pieces.
5.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A. The Qualities of a Musician
B. The Story of a Musical Talent
C. The Importance of Early Education
D. The Relationship between Memory and Music.
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，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空。
Last year, my brother and I went to Miami for a vacation. Some of my friends who had been there before said_1._____ was a wonderful holiday destination. Before we went, we had planned for months. When the day came, we were ready.
After our plane landed, we went to the hotel. We had made our reservation six months__2.____ （early）, but the man at the front desk said there had been a mistake. We 3._____（tell）that our rooms hadn’t been reserved for that week, 4._____ for the week after. I didn’t understand 5.____ this would happen and my credit card had already been charged6.______ the reservation. What’s worse, the hotel had been fully booked. When we were wondering what to do, the manager came out. She was 7._____（surprise）helpful. She apologized for the mistake and gave us a spare VIP room on 8._____ top floor. We had never stayed in such an amazing room, and we weren’t charged extra.
The next day, my brother and I went to the beach 9.____ we watched some people play volleyball. We got a little10._____（sunburn），but the day had been so relaxing that we didn’t mind.
Parents feel that it is difficult to live with teenagers. Then again, teenagers have feelings about their parents, saying that it is not easy living with them. According to a recent research, the most common between parents and teenagers is that regarding untidiness and daily routine tasks. On the one hand, parents go mad over rooms, clothes thrown on the floor and their children’s refusal to help with the . On the other hand, teenagers lose their patience continually when parents blame them for the towel in the bathroom, not cleaning up their room or refusing to do the shopping at the supermarket.
The research, conducted by St. George University, shows that different parents have different to these problems. However, some approaches are more than others. For example, those parents who yell at their children for their untidiness, but clean the room for them, have fewer chances of changing their children’s . On the contrary, those who let teenagers experience the of their actions can do better. For example, when teenagers who don’t help their parents with the shopping don’t find their favorite drink in the refrigerator, they are forced to their actions.
Psychologists say that is the most important thing in parent-child relationships. Parents should to their children but at the same time they should lend an ear to what they have to say. Parents may their children when they are untidy but they should also understand that their room is their own private space. Communication is a two-way process. It is only by listening to and each other that problems between parents and children can be settled.
1.A. natural B. strongC. guilty D. similar
2.A. interest B. argumentC. link D.knowledge
3.A. noisy B. crowdedC. messy D. locked
4.A. homework B. houseworkC. problem D. research
5.A. washing B. using C. dropping D. replacing
6.A. approaches B. contributions C. introductions D. attitudes
7.A. complex B. popular C. scientific D. successful
8.A. later B. deliberately C. seldom D. thoroughly
9.A. behavior B. taste C. future D. nature
10.A. failures B. changes C. consequences D. thrills
11.A. defend B. delay C. repeat D. reconsider
12.A. communication B. bond C. friendship D. trust
13.A. reply B. attend C. attach D. talk
14.A. hate B. scold C. frighten D. stop
15.A. loving B. observing C. understanding D. praising
某英文报社组织题为“我喜欢的英语谚语”征文活动，你有意参加。请从下面两句谚语中任选一句作为标题写一篇英语作文，内容须包括：1.该谚语的含义；2.体现该谚语含义的个人经历。
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
②Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
注意：1.词数：120-150；
2.文中不得透露个人姓名和学校名称。
参考词汇：谚语 proverb
阅读下面的短文并用英语回答问题，然后将答案写到答题卡相应的位置上（请注意问题后的字数要求）。
[1] Nowadays the cost of a new car has fallen in real terms so that it is cheaper than ever to own one, and better road conditions have also attracted more drivers. The result is overcrowding on the road system, which is one of the problems the local governments are faced with.
[2] When people travel to other towns, the problem might be relieved by getting them to park outside the town. Buses could be provided to take them into the centre. These Park and Ride projects are increasingly popular in the UK. At Southerton, for example, a council-funded project led to a 15% drop in city centre traffic over five months.
[3] What the council found, though, was that the project proved somewhat unpopular with shop owners in the area outside the centre. Many of their shops relied on passing car drivers for some of their trade. As the number of people driving past dropped, so did their incomes.
[4] Making car driving expensive is another way of ____________. Road taxes tend to mean that people use their cars less. Fining drivers who are in areas where cars have been banned can also tend to encourage them to leave their cars behind.
[5] However, one thing has to be got right for any solution to succeed. If we expect people to give up the habit of driving, we must give them an alternative they can rely on. Constant delays, unannounced changes to the timetable and sudden cancellations all discourage people from using public transport. People will only see it as a real choice if the buses and trains are on time.
1.What causes overcrowding on the road system according to Paragraph 1? (no more than 12 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
2.What should people do when traveling to other towns according to the Park and Ride projects? (no more than 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
3.Why were some shop owners unhappy about the project? (no more than 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
4.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4. ( no more than 8 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
5.Why are people unwilling to use public transport according to Paragraph 5? (no more than 8 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can make words.
The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.
The goal is to find out whether kids using today’s new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they’re already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.
The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device’s camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.
With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn’t know any English. That’s unbelievable,” said Keller.
The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won’t be in Amharic, Ethiopia’s first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.
1.How does the Ethiopia program benefit the kids in the village?
A. It trains teachers for them.
B. It contributes to their self-study.
C. It helps raise their living standards.
D. It provides funds for building schools.
2.What can we infer from Keller’s words in Paragraph 3?
A. They need more time to analyze data.
B. More children are needed for the research.
C. He is confident about the future of the project.
D. The research should be carried out in kindergartens.
3.It amazed Keller that with the tablet Kelbesa could _______.
A. learn English words quickly.
B. draw pictures of animals.
C. write letters to researchers.
D. make phone calls to his friends.
4.What is the aim of the project?
A. To offer Ethiopians higher paying jobs.
B. To make Amharic widely used in the world.
C. To help Ethiopian kids read to learn in English.
D. To assist Ethiopians in learning their first language.
