There are so many people who write to newspaper and magazines to express their opinions. Letters to the editor must carry the writer’s full name, address and telephone number, although the information is not necessary for publication. This requirement to provide personal particulars is a clear indication that writers are held responsible for what they say. When a writer wants his voice heard, he needs to claim ownership of his voice. Responsibility is the name of the game.
“People today prefer living together to putting their signatures on a marriage certificate because they refuse to accept responsibility for the relationship,” said social worker Ken Yip, “and this is what is causing a lot of family problems.” When we sign a paper, for example, a business contract or a bank document, the signature is a seal of consent, an agreement to take the matter seriously. Most governments and many organizations will not process written complaints if they do not bear the writer’s signature. The absence of a signature, they explain, tells us that the writer cannot be too serious and therefore does not deserve a reply.
There are people who wish to remain anonymous for various reasons. Multi-billionaire Mr. King donates generously to charity several times a year. He gives simply because he wants to help but not for the publicity his donations may bring, and he does not want his good deeds to make news. In other cases, people insist on anonymity because they are afraid of the consequences of revealing their identity. Crime witnesses may be willing to assist the police, but most are unwilling to give their names when reporting a crime.
Name or no name? The answer is very personal and lies in how much we want to get involved. We all have a name. It is a matter of responsibility to use it when we make a statement, a claim or an accusation. We all want to honor our own name, and it is only by stamping our expression of an opinion with our own name that we honor what we say.
1. What does the writer mean by saying “Responsibility is the name of the game”?
A. Names are required to indicate writers’ responsibility for what they say
B. Publication must bear the writer’s full name, address and phone number.
C. Writers should be responsible for their names.
D.. Writers need to provide their personal information in the game.
2.Some people don’t want their names known because they are ________.
A. hesitant to make a donation
B. afraid of an accusation
C. unwilling to draw public attention
D. ready for involvement
3.The passage is mainly about _______.
A. honor and writers
B. identity and signature
C. anonymity and signature
D. signature and responsibility
We can’t deny that trees are useful to man in three very important ways: they provide him with wood and other products, they give him shade, and they help to prevent drought and floods.
Unfortunately, in many parts of the world man has not realized that the third of these services is the most important. In his eagerness to draw quick profit from the trees, he has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had.
Two thousand years ago a rich and powerful country cut down its trees to build warships, with which to gain itself an empire. It gained the empire but, without its trees, its soil became hard and poor. When the empire fell to pieces, the country found itself faced by floods and starvation.
Even though a government realizes the importance of a plentiful supply of trees, it is difficult for it to persuade the villager to see this. The villager wants wood to cook his food, and he can earn money by making charcoal or selling wood to the townsman. He is usually too lazy or too careless to plant and look after trees. So unless the government has a good system of control, or can educate the people, the forests will slowly disappear.
This does not only mean that the villagers’ sons and grandsons have fewer trees. The results are even more serious. For where there are trees ,their roots break the soil up, allowing the rain to sink in and also bind the soil, thus preventing it being washed away easily, but where there are no trees, the soil becomes hard and poor. The rain falls on hard ground and flows away on the surface, causing floods and carrying away the rich topsoil, in which crops grow so well. When all the topsoil is gone, nothing remains but worthless desert.
1.It’s a great pity that ________.
A. man is only interested in building empires
B. man is eager to profit from trees
C. man hasn’t realized the importance of trees to him
D. man hasn’t found out that he has lost all trees
2.Sooner or later the forests will disappear______
A. unless people are taught the importance of planting trees
B. unless people stop cutting down their trees
C. unless a county has a plenty supply of trees
D. unless the government punishes those who cut trees instead of planting trees
3.The word “bind” in Paragraph 5 means”_________”
A. to make stay together B. to make wet
C. to wash away D. to improve
4.When there is a heavy rain ,trees can help to prevent floods, as they can ___________
A. keep rain from falling down to soft ground
B. cause the soil to allow rainwater to sink in
C. prevent the soil from being washed away
D. make the topsoil stick together
Shundagarh is a village on India’s east-facing coast. It is a village of simple mud and grass houses built on the beach just above the waterline. The Khadra Hills rise immediately behind the village, to a height of one hundred and fifty meters. A simple, good-hearted old man, whose name was Jalpur, farmed two small fields on the very edge of these hills. From his fields he could see the fishing boats that traveled up and down the coast. He could see the children playing on the sands; their mothers washing clothes on the flat stones where the Shiva River flowed into the sea; and their fathers landing the latest catch or repairing nets and telling stories that had no end.
All Jalpur owned in the world were the clothes he wore day in and day out, the miserable(蹩脚的) hut that he slept in at night, a few tools and cooking pots – and his fields. The corn that he grew was all that made life possible. If the weather was kind and the harvest was good, Jalpur could live happily enough – not well, but happily. When the sun was fierce, and there was little or no rain, then he came close to the line between life and death.
Last year the weather had been so kind, and the harvest promised to be so good, that Jalpur had been wondering whether he could sell all that he had and live with his son farther up the coast. He had been thinking about doing this for some years. It was his dearest wish to spend his last days with his son and his wife. But he would go only if he could give; he would not go if it meant taking food out of the mouths of his grandchildren. He would rather die hungry than do this.
On the day when Jalpur decided that he would harvest his corn, sell it, and move up the coast, he looked out to the sea and saw a huge wave, several kilometers out, advancing on the coast and on the village of Shundagarh. Within ten minutes everyone in Shundagarh would be drowned. Jalpur would have shouted, but the people were too far away to hear. He would have run down the hill, but he was too old to run. He was prepared to do anything to save the people of Shundagarh, so he did the only thing that he could do: he set fire to his corn. In a matter of seconds the flames were rising high and smoke was rising higher. Within a minute the people of Shundagarh were racing up the hill to see what had happened. There, in the middle of his blackened cornfield, they found Jalpur; and there they buried him.
On his grave, they wrote the words: Here lies Jalpur, a man who gave, living; a man who died, giving.
1.Which of the following could Jalpur NOT see from his fields?
A. Fathers taking their corn to market.
B Mothers washing clothes.
C. Fishing boats traveling on the sea.
D. Children playing on the sands.
2.Why didn’t Jalpur live well?
A. He didn’t work hard.
B. He had too many children to feed.
C. The villagers kept taking his corn.
D. He only depended on good weather and harvest for survival.
3. What did Jalpur do when he saw the huge wave?
A. He ran down the hill to tell the people.
B. He screamed loudly to get the villagers’ attention.
C. He set his corn on fire so the people of Shundagarh would leave the beach.
D. He stood still, not knowing what to do.
4.The villagers were thankful to Jalpur because he had .
A. given them his corn in order to save them from hunger
B. saved their village from being drowned by the wave
C. given them many things during his life
D. given his life in order to save theirs
Watching some children trying to catch butterflies one August afternoon, I was reminded of an incident in my own childhood. When I was a boy of 12 in South Carolina, something happened to me that cured me forever of wanting to put any wild creature in a cage.
We lived on the edge of a wood, and every evening at dusk the mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. There isn’t a musical instrument made by man that can produce a more beautiful sound than the song of the mockingbird. I decided that I would catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and that in that case, I would have my own private musician.
I finally succeeded in catching one and put it in a cage. At first, in its fright at being captured , the bird fluttered(拍翅) about the cage, but eventually it settled down in its new home. I felt pleased with myself and looked forward to some beautiful singing from my tiny musician.
I had left the cage out on our back doorway and on the second day of the bird’s captivity(囚禁)， my new pet’s mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth. The baby bird ate everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother knew better than I on how to feed the baby.
The following morning when I went to see how my captive was doing, I discovered it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was shocked! What had happened? I had taken excellent care of my little bird , or so I thought.
Arthur Wayne, the famous ornithologist, happened to be visiting my father at the time and, hearing me crying over the death of my bird, explained what had occurred. “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poisonous berries(浆果). She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in captivity.”
Never since then have I caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a right to live free.
1.The boy caught a mockingbird because__________.
A. he liked its beautiful feather.
B. he wanted a pet as his companion
C. he wanted it to sing for him
D. he wanted to watch it dance
2.The “ornithologist” probably means __________.
A. a religious person
B. a kind and sympathetic person
C. a school master
D. an expert in birds
3.The most important lesson the boy learned from the accident is that __________ .
A. a bird put in a cage won’t live long
B. you have to be careful about the food you give to your young
C. freedom is valuable to all living creatures
D. you should keep a young bird away from its mother
4.What can we infer according to the passage?
A. The children trying to catch butterflies reminded the author to keep a mockingbird as a pet.
B. The mockingbird sings better than any other bird.
C. The mockingbird’s mother had a better understanding than the author.
D. The author did not catch any living creature and put it in a cage after the accident.
书面表达
假如你是李明，你跟你的朋友Paul聊天，他表示学习压力(stress)很大，请你给他写封信，给他提一些建议。
【写作内容】
1． 将自己的问题告诉老师和同学，请求得到他们的帮助。
2． 不要总关心考试成绩，要多寻找自己在的优点与进步（progress）， 这样做是非常值得的。
3． 多参加体育锻炼，运动不仅可以帮助自己缓解压力，而且有助于睡眠。
4． 你对他的祝福。
【写作要求】
信的开头和结尾已给出，要求句子结构准确，信息内容完整，篇章结构连贯。
Dear Paul,
I feel sorry for you and understand the great trouble you are suffering from.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Ming
短文改错
下面这篇短文共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误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合(^)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划—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。
With the development of the Internet, more and more people send ecards instead paper ones when an important holiday comes.
Comparing with the traditional cards, ecards are more interested.Besides, it is faster to send an ecard.The next advantage is that there are many web site online in which there are many cards for you to choose from. Final, with the popularity of ecards, more paper is used in making paper cards, that does good to our environment.
In the short, there are many advantages of using ecards. I hoped that sending greetings by using ecards will be accepted by more people, not only the young one.
