I walked up to the counter. Behind it was a lady with glasses on the tip of her nose and gray hair on her head.
“Excuse me,” I said. She looked up. “You’re that Clements kid,” she said. “I’ m Miss Bee. Come closer and let me get a look at you.” She pushed her glasses up her nose. “I can describe you to the police if something goes missing from the store.”
“I’ m not a thief!” I was shocked. I was seven too young to be a thief!
“From what I can see you’re not much of anything. But I can tell you’ve got potential.” She went back to reading her newspaper.
“I need to get these.” I said, holding up my list. “So? Go get them.” Miss Bee pointed to a sign on the screen door. “I’m not your servant, so I suggest you get yourself a basket and start filling.”
I visited Miss Bee several times a week that summer. Sometimes she short-changed me. Other times she overcharged. “That can of beans is only twenty nine cents” I corrected her one afternoon. I had watched the numbers change on the cash register closely, and Miss Bee had added 35 cents. She didn't seem embarrassed. She just looked at me over her glasses and fixed the price.
But she ever let me declare victory. All summer long she found ways to play tricks on me. No sooner had I learned how to pronounce bicarbonate of soda(小苏打) and memorized its location on the shelf than Miss Bee rearranged the shelve and made me hunt for it all over again.
One day before I left, she said, “I know what you think of me, but I don't care! Each of us is put on this earth for a reason. I believe my job is to teach every child I meet life lessons. When you get older you'll be glad our paths crossed!” Glad I met Miss Bee？Ha! The idea was absurd…
Until one day my daughter asked me to finish her math problems. “If I do it for you how will you ever learn to do it yourself?” I said. Suddenly, I remembered the lady Miss Bee.
1.The girl felt __________ when Miss Bee implied she could be a thief.
A. surprised B. shocked C. puzzled D. annoyed
2.We can infer from Paragraph 6 that Miss Bee ______________.
A .showed no care about her mistakes
B. made the girl learn to double-check
C. was always playing tricks on the girl
D. was careless and dishonest to do business
3.It can be learned from the passage that Miss Bee ______________.
A. knew her job was to help every child she met
B. asked the girl to shop by herself to test her honesty
C. taught the girl many lessons but she didn't understand
D. rearranged the shelves to teach the girl to be changeable
4.Which is NOT the lesson the writer learnt from shopping?
A Treat others kindly and politely.
B. Don’t be so quick to judge others.
C. The best teachers aren’t only in school.
D. Try our best though the task seems beyond us.
Mathilda,15, is Turkana, a native people that has survived by raising cattle in a semiarid (半干旱) region. Mathilda's school, like most schools in the area, doesn't have access to clean water and sanitation facilities for its students. So instead of spending their whole school day learning, Mathilda and her classmates start their day by spending two hours to the closest river fetching water ---water that is anyway most likely not safe to drink. They do the same thing again in the afternoon, so they often lose around half of their school day fetching water.
Mathilda has to do the same thing outside of school hours to get the water her family needs at home, leaving her little time for studying. Because of rising temperatures, water has become harder and harder to find here, and people have to spend more and more time trying to find it.
This is just one small example of how climate change is making it harder to realize people’s rights to water, education and security. Unfortunately, most higher-income countries remained silent on the issue.
This is despite studies showing that communities already facing marginalization(边缘化),such as women and children, mostly suffer from climate change. This is especially the case for those in countries with limited resources and fragile ecosystems.
Meanwhile, women consist of the majority of the world 's poor，and so are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change. And around the world, women and girls are the most likely to be responsible for fetching water for their families.
This exposes them to danger and leaves them with less time to attend school, earn money, or simply to rest. But the fact is that the effects of climate change will be felt globally.
Despite the difficulties she is facing, trying to get an education, Mathilda says she hopes to serve her community in a leadership role when she grows up.
“All of the world's leaders need to work together to solve this problem that we are all facing,” she said.
1.Mathilda has to spend _______fetching water every school day.
A. two hours B. four hours
C. more than four hours D. almost a whole day
2.The first two paragraphs are intended to tell us____________.
A. the cause and effect of lack of water
B. one serious consequence of climate change
C. the difficulties in fetching water in the semiarid region
D. the hardship of life for the people in the semiarid region
3.We can conclude from the passage that________________.
A. climate change is everyone's business
B. water is becoming rare because of rising temperatures
C. fetching water takes up Mathilda's half of studying time
D. females are more responsible for fetching water for their families
4.The passage is mainly about the problem caused by_______________.
A. rising temperatures B. fetching water
C. climate change D. water shortage
China has announced it’s abolishing its one-child policy. What difference has it made, statistically speaking?
400 million births prevented
The one-child policy, officially in place since 1979, has prevented 400 million births. Parents have faced fines and other punishments for having more children.
The majority of the decrease in China’s fertility rate happened in the 1970s. It dropped from 5.8 children per woman in 1970 to 2.7 in 1978. Despite the one-child policy the rate had only fallen to 1.7 by 2013.
21:28-baby deaths rate
Since the one-child policy was introduced, baby girls have become more likely to die than boys.
In the 1970s, according to the United Nations, 60 males per 1, 000 live births died under the age of one. For girls the figure was 53. In the 1980s, after the one-child policy became official, the rate for both was 36. By the 1990s, 26 males per 1,000 live births died before the age of one - and 33 girls. The 2000s saw 21 boys per 1,000 live births dying and 28 girls.
1.16 boys born for every girl
Sexually selective abortions have been considered as a major cause of China's unusual imbalance.
Gietel-Basten, associate professor in social policy at Oxford University, says the births of many girls are not registered if parents have broken the rule by having two children, adding officials often turn a blind eye. It's estimated there are now 33 million more men than women in China.
4: 2: 1 families
With the ageing of China's population and the continuation of the one-child policy, a “4: 2 :1” home is the description given to households in which there are four grandparent, cared for by two working age parents, who themselves have one child.
By 2050, it’s predicted that a quarter of China's population will be 65 or older. The predicted decline in the number of people of working age is thought to have persuaded the government to drop the one-child policy.
1.When was the baby deaths rate for both boys and girls equal?
A. In the 1970s. B. In the 1980s.
C. In the 1990s. D. In the 2000s
2.What makes the one-child policy abolished according to the passage?
A. The decline of birth rate.
B. The rise of baby deaths rate.
C. The change of family structure.
D. The decline of working age people.
3.The passage sums up the one child policy by ________________.
A. number B. example C. contrast D. analysis
书面表达
假如你是李华，你在3月5号到8号期间入住了一家酒店。现对在此期间所遇到的问题向该酒店有关人员进行投诉，其中主要包括房间照明，食物以及员工的服务态度等方面。
注意：1、词数100字左右
2、信的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数
3、可适当增加情节，使文章流畅
Dear Sir or Madam，
Faithfully yours,
Li Hua
短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，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。
Dear Jerry,
I'm sorry for having no time to pay visit to Hangzhou with you next week. The reason why I can't spare time is because there are many friend of mine who are facing a coming English exam. There has no doubt that it is important for them. They are looking forward on to my giving a hand to them and they hope to get through the exam successful. As a result, I will spend time help them at that time. In addition, I will attend a party which aim to raise money for the people in the earthquake-hit area. But l want to put off their time of the visit to the first weekend of next month. Is it OK？
Best wishes!
Yours
Li Hua
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
An old proverb says, “Friends are like wine; the older, the better.” So, nowadays many people consider old friends to be 1. (important) than new friends. For example, if two pieces of advice 2. (give) to solve a problem, one from a new friend and the other from 3. old friend, people always tend to 4. (adoption) the latter one, although the new friend's advice may be better.
5. (disagree) with the old proverb, I believe that new friends are not 6. (necessary) worse than old friends. Why? Because the length of time cannot determine whether your friendship is better or not.
Once you call someone friend, he must be a person who is 7. (rely) and whose interests are in common with 8. (you). As time goes by, a friend's outside look may change, but the inside characters of him and his interests 9. (change).It is just these unchangeable characters and interests 10. make him a friend to you. Therefore, on this point, there is no difference between old friends and new friends.
