Like many men at some point, I dream about opening a bar. I plan to call it Work Out. It will cater to married women in need of a little fun. On Friday nights, they will be able to come here and enjoy themselves.
See, I have a gift for business. I am, as my wife Zsa Zsa likes to note, “A man with a million ideas, none of them very good.” Speaking of Zsa Zsa, she is fed up with this plain little life I’ve made for us——too many kids, too many chores, mind – numbing debt. The other day, she said she thought we needed a new family car. “Sure. How about an 87 Lincoln?” I said, and saw my dear Zsa Zsa age about 20 years, and become her mother right before my eyes.
Yes, money is our madness. Last year, we thought we had found a little cushion when I published a book about the life here in suburban America. It sold 12 copies——six of them to my mother. Four other copies went to various aunts and uncles, who used them for martini coasters (杯垫), then sold them at yard sales. The two remaining copies went to perfect strangers. (I think I owe you dinner, whoever you are. Call me, OK? We’ll arrange something.)
When the book didn’t take off, I wrote a TV show. Then I penned a short novel based on the earlier TV idea that didn’t sell. Currently, I am at work on a set of encyclopedias(百科全书). In a month, I plan to sell them door-to-door.
Such is the life of a writer, sending off the most personal thoughts possible to his hard drive. I am a writer, but also the breadwinner in my family. I’m at the keyboard at 6 almost every morning, hoping to tap out one idea——just one——that will take us up the hill, to the mountain, to the top.
1.According to the passage, the author is leading a/an______ life.
A. enjoyable B. wealthy
C. hard D. comfortable
2.By saying “Sure. How about an 87 Lincoln?”, the author_______ .
A. promised it to his wife
B. was showing off their fortune
C. thought his wife would like it
D. was just joking
3.What was the result of the book the author mentioned in the 3rd paragraph?
A. It didn’t sell well at all
B. He sold it door – to – door.
C. He made a lot of money from it.
D. It was really a cushion for his family.
4.What does the underlined word “cushion” mean ?
A. Comfortable seat. B. Financial help.
C. Unexpected success. D. Best-selling book.
5.From the account above, which of the following statements is true?
A. He has a real gift for business.
B. He isn’t serious enough about life.
C. He is a hard – working writer.
D. His wife is satisfied with their plain life.
When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.
Cigarette? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.
The costs are becoming more and more evident, and I don't mean just the monthly bill. Dr. Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality. Sounds extreme, but we' ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell - phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e - mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents." Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends," he says.
If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987, there were only l million cell phones in use. Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.
1.From the first two paragraphs, we can know ________.
A. cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes
B. cell phone addiction is good for building personal relationships
C. people are longing to have their own cell phones
D. cell phones are the same as cigarettes
2.Cell phone addiction has caused the following effects EXCEPT_________
A. a barrier to personal contact
B. fewer friends
C. an escape from reality
D. a serious illness
3.The underlined word "curb" in Paragraph 2 means________.
A. ignore B. control C. develop D. rescue
4.The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that__________.
A. women use cell phones more often than men
B. talking on the phone while driving is dangerous
C. cell phones do not necessarily bring people together
D. cell phones make one - on - one personal contact easy
5.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. Cell phones are the New Cigarettes
B. Cell phones are harmful to the Society
C. The New Report about the Cell phone
D. The Disadvantages of the Cell phone
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。
The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. For thousands of years, the festival ___1.__(mark) by eating zong zi and racing dragon boats in honour of Qu Yuan, who is said to have committed suicide(自杀) by drowning himself.
Qu was a minister of the State of Chu ____2.___(situate) in the present day Hunan and Hubei provinces, during the Warring States Period (战国时期)．He was upright, loyal and highly respected.___ 3.____, he was dismissed from office. ___4._ (realize) that the country was in the hands of evil officials, Qu leapt into River Miluo on the fifth day of the fifth month. Nearby fishermen rushed over to save him but were ____5.__(able) to recover his body.
The people of Chu ____6.___mourned Qu's death threw rice into the river to feed his ghost ____7.___year on the day of his death. But one year, the spirit of Qu appeared and told the mourners that a huge reptile (爬行动物)in the river had stolen the rice. The spirit then advised ____8.____to wrap the rice and bind it ___9.___throwing it into the river.
During the Duanwu Festival, zong zi is eaten to symbolize (象征,表示) the rice offerings to Qu. And the dragon boat races symbolize ____10.___many attempts to rescue and recover Qu's body.
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1—15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。
You join Facebook and "friend" your old classmates. You might not ever talk about anything serious with them but they are there.
A classmate from twenty years ago was one of my Facebook friends. A few random comments he _____ gave me the impression that something was _____ so I tried to make him call me. He did call and I found out that he, his wife and eight children had just moved into a(n) _____motel room. He had used the very last of their money to pay for a week's _____ there. He had no job and they had lost their _____.
I bought a few groceries and took them to the motel room. After the visit I ____to do something a bit extreme. I messaged all of our mutual Facebook friends from our graduating class. What happened next was just _____. Soon I was getting responses. Classmates, some of whom had _____ been barely friendly started calling me for information or sending donations for the family.
Someone told me they knew someone else in a nearby town with a(n) _____house. The home owners donated the house rent free, only asking them to ____ the fees of water and electricity and mow (修剪) the lawn when it was needed. Soon this family had volunteers from our class delivering furniture, groceries, toys, even job _____!
There are still many things we are _____ for this family. They have yet to get a vehicle for work and he hasn't found a job, but everyone is _____ smiles now. And, let me tell you, the hugs from his lovely children speak louder than any words ever could!
I became the _____ between this family's needs and people who could help them. It still amazes me how wonderfully it all _____, just because of me and my Facebook friends!
1.A. made B. took C. expressed D. wrote
2.A. awkward B. wrong C. horrible D. disgusting
3.A. expensive B. comfortable C. cheap D. worthless
4.A. sleep B. rest C. play D. stay
5.A. money B. food C. clothes D. home
6.A. agreed B. declared C. decided D. managed
7.A. unbelievable B. interesting C. funny D. ridiculous
8.A. previously B. occasionally C. frequently D. deliberately[来
9.A. big B. beautiful C. useless D. empty
10.A. cost B. spend C. buy D. pay
11.A. descriptions B. applications C. conditions D. newspapers
12.A. hoping B. asking C. looking D. answering
13.A. wearing B. having C. giving D. sending
14.A. relationship B. partner C. bridge D. witness
15.A. gave out B. picked out C. made out D. worked out
假如你是大学一年级新生李华。开学之初，你的英语老师Ms Li希望了解每位同学的英语学习情况，并征求教学建议。请按以下要点用英语给她写一封信。
1.对英语学习的认识；
2.自己目前的英语水平；
3.自己英语学习存在的主要问题；
4.对英语教学的两点建议。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.信的开头和结尾已给出。
Dear Ms Li,
I’m very happy to have you as our English teacher.
Thank you!
Li Hua
短文改错（共10 小题, 每小题1.5分，满分15分）
增加：在缺词处加—个漏词符号（∧），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1、每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2、只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Mr. Smith is an old man. He has a dog or a small car. He likes playing cards. Yesterday afternoon when he played cars for three hours in his friend house. It was getting dark, so he left there in the hurry and jumped into a car. His dog followed him, but it jumped into other car. “Come here! What a fool!” Mr. Smith shouted at it. But the dog still stayed here. Mr. Smith want to start the car, but the key didn’t turn. Then he looked the car again. It was not his. He was in the wrong car! And the dog was in the right one. Realized that, Mr. Smith laughed.
