阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1—20各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard（橄榄园）. He was very hardworking, and the ________ always prospered（繁荣）under his care. But he knew that his three ________ looked down upon the farm work, and were eager to make wealth.
When the farmer was ________ and felt that he would die, he ________ the three sons to him and said, “My sons, there is a pot of gold ________ in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it.”
The sons tried to ________ him to tell them in what part of the orchard the ________was hidden, but he would tell them nothing more.
After the farmer was ________, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold; since they did not ________where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one ________ of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.
The________ until they had turned up the________ from one end of the orchard to the other, ________ the tree-roots and between them. ________ no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering in his wits. The three sons were bitterly ________ to have all their work for nothing.
The next olive ________, the olive trees in the orchard bore（结果实）more fruit than they had ________ given; when it was________ , it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.
And when they saw how much money had ________ the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had ________ when he said, “There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it.”
1.A．garden B．farm C．factory D．hospital
2.A．friends B．relatives C．sons D．children
3.A．healthy B．unlucky C．old D．sad
4.A．showed B．led C．visited D．called
5.A．sent B．put C．locked D．hidden
6.A．get B．wait C．cause D．make
7.A．gold B．goods C．jewel D．clothes
8.A．weak B．lost C．sick D．dead
9.A．think B．wonder C．know D．realise
10.A．top B．end C．surface D．bottom
11.A．searched B．dug C．discovered D．expected
12.A．sand B．ground C．soil D．floor
13.A．over B．among C．across D．round
14.A．Since B．And C．But D．Before
15.A．surprised B．disappointed C．worried D．sad
16.A．distance B．part C．season D．degree
17.A．already B．even C． still D．ever
18.A．sold B．made C．shipped D．saved
19.A．come on B．come about C．come from D．come up
20.A．thought B．mean C．planned D．guessed
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
How can we all get more laughter into our lives? Here are what the experts suggest：
1.____. Nancy Alguire, a teacher in Clifton Park, N. Y．， was once painfully shy and had a hard time laughing. Then she married a circus clown (小丑)．“I became interested in the clowns.”she recalls.“One day I put on a costume and painted my face. That afternoon my whole life changed. I learned to laugh and enjoy life in a way I had never done before.” ___2.__ To this day, she still makes it a rule to be with people who enjoy life and laughing.
3.____ It doesn't take you too much time and can be easy. Collect favourite cartoons and jokes. Also, keep a paper for writing down humour you find in everyday life. “Good ideas come and go fast, you have to capture them quickly or they will be gone.” says Virginia Tooper.
Laugh when you need it most.“____4.___”says comedian Bill Cosby.“And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.” he insists.
Gray Alan, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota, claims that laughter is a skill we can all gain—because it comes naturally.____ 5.____. Just remember: we are just here for a period, so get a few laughs.
A．You can soften the worst blows through humour.
B．Mix with people who laugh.
C．Practise the art of laughing.
D．Keep a laughter file (文档)．
E．He who laughs last laughs best.
F．But it's also something that has to be developed (培养)．
G．People's joy can affect those around them.
One is not born able to speak a language. One is born able to make a noise. I have heard babies cry in America and in China. I can’t tell any difference. But when I hear someone from America speak English and hear someone speak Chinese, I can tell you there are a lot of differences.
I believe a common(普遍的) problem with Chinese students’ learning English is that they were not taught to think in English. They have an idea spoken in English and want to translate the idea into Chinese, then they think in Chinese of the proper reply and translate it into English. After along period of speaking the language, one begins to think in the foreign language naturally. You will learn faster if you begin to think in English at the very beginning of your study. Many students ask me: What can I do to improve my spoken English?
My reply is: The more English you speak, the better English you will speak. There are many things you can do to improve your spoken English. Of course, the best way is to live where English is spoken as a language of the country.
1.The cries of American and Chinese babies are _______.
A. different B. not like each other
C. the same D. like each other
2.The underlined sentence (in Paragraph 2) means that______.
A. teachers never gave the students the way of learning English
B. some teachers didn’t teach students to think in English
C. students didn’t remember the way teachers taught them
D. teachers didn’t want their students to think in English
3.The underlined word “they” (in Paragraph 2) refers to “_____”.
A. English students B. Chinese teachers
C. Chinese students D. English teachers
4.According to the article, which of the following is TRUE?
A. You must think in English all the time.
B. After speaking English for a long time, you may probably think in English naturally(自然地).
C. You should always translate English into Chinese.
D. The best way of learning English is to live in America.
If there is a building which symbolizes a country—such as the Eiffel Tower for France and Sydney Opera House for Australia—then it has to be the Taj Mahal for India.
It was set up by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1653 in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. From the time they got married, they wouldn't be separated. She followed him to wars, advised him on affairs of state, and was loved by his people for her good work. But she died in 1631 during childbirth. The emperor was heart－broken and had the Taj Mahal built as a sign of his love.
It took more than 20 years for the Taj Mahal to be built. Workers were brought in, not only from all over India, but from Central Asia too. A total of 20,000 people worked on the building.
In 1657, Shah Jahan fell ill, and in 1658 his son Aurangzeb, imprisoned (囚禁) his father and seized power. Shah Jahan stayed in prison until his death in 1666. He was finally buried there with his wife he could never forget.
The Taj Mahal is definitely worth more than a single visit. As it is built with white marble stones, its character changes in different lights. It looks more beautiful at sunrise and sunset. At sunset, for example, the colour of the Taj changes from white to yellow, then to pink. As the moon rises, it turns a silvery white.
To show respect to the Taj, tourists are asked to take off their shoes during their visit.
1.Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to ________.
A．make it symbolize India B.memorise his wife
C．show his great power D．give his wife a present
2.Which of the following about the Taj Mahal is NOT true?
A．It is a symbol of India.
B．It took over 20 years to build the Taj Mahal.
C．All workers building the Taj Mahal came from Central Asia.
D．The Taj Mahal was built with white marble stones.
3.According to the passage, we know that Shah Jahan ______.
A．lived a hard life in his last few years
B．lost his life just because of his old age
C．was not popular with his people at that time
D．treated his son badly when he was young
4.The word “seize” in the fourth paragraph may most probably mean ________.
A．throw B．memorise C．give D．capture
The 92－year－old, thin, calm and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, even though she is nearly blind, moved to a nursing home today.
Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the hall of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she walked slowly to the elevator, I provided a true description of her tiny room, including the old sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it.” she said with the happiness of an eight－year－old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs Jones, you haven't seen the room...just wait.”
“That doesn't matter.” she replied.“Happiness is something you decide ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arranged my mind. I have already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away.”She went on to explain，“Old age is like a bank account. You take what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to put in a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my memory bank.”And with a smile, she said，“All my memories are happy ones.”
1.We can infer from the passage that the author ________.
A．is one of Mrs Jones' children
B．works in the nursing home
C．is a relative of Mrs Jones
D．is the owner of the nursing home
2.Mrs Jones was very happy when told about her room because she ________.
A．couldn't see what her room was like
B．thought the nursing home was her home
C．had already made up her mind to be happy
D．would have to live in the nursing home
3.Which of the following words can best describe Mrs Jones?
A．Proud. B．Determined. C．Cheerful. D．Honest.
If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice: There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.
Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come_across,_but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.
As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practise listening.
For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programmes every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.
If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.
1.To improve your reading, when you read you should ________.
A．think about what you are reading actively
B．look up all the new words in the dictionary
C．spend more time studying grammars
D．copy as many words and sentences as possible
2.The underlined phrase“come across” in the second paragraph can probably be replaced by“________”．
A．find on purpose B．Discover
C．meet by accident D．look for
3.The author seems to agree with the view that ________.
A．everyone should listen to VOA or BBC programmes every day
B．you needn't practise listening if you keep on reading every day
C．you should take notes of whatever you are hearing
D．being good at reading is helpful in improving your listening
4.The passage is mainly about how to ________.
A．become fluent in speaking and writing English
B．choose suitable listening materials
C．deal with new words in reading
D．improve your English as quickly as possible
