One of the Queen’s closest relatives and oldest friends was allowed to give a deep description into the family life of the Royals. Although there have been hundreds of other books declaring to offer a quick look behind the Palace doors, this is the first written by someone who is closely related to the Royal Family and has shared their lives—not only throughout the Queen’s reign (统治) but also through that of her father, King George VI.
The Final Curtsey was written by her Majesty’s cousin and childhood playmate the Honorable Margaret Rhodes. It tells in details the story of Mrs. Rhodes’s relationship with the Royal family over eight decades. The book, with delightfully informal and never-before-seen pictures, has been written with the full knowledge of the Queen, who has read and approved parts of it.
Born in 1925, the Honorable Margaret Rhodes has led an extraordinary life. She was the childhood playmate of her cousin, the Queen; a wartime M16 spy; and she was a lady-in- waiting (宫女) to her aunt, the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, from 1991 until the latter’s death in 2002. At the Queen’s 80th birthday in April 2006, Margaret gave an interview to the BBC which she proved that, in her own opinion and despite several false reports, the Queen would not abdicate(退位).
In this charming autobiography (自传)，she told how she was offered a house to live in the Royal farm in Windsor Great Park unexpectedly. One day when she and the Queen were out riding outside, she suddenly returned and said, “Could you bear to live in the suburb?” “I think it should be OK.” Therefore Mrs. Rhodes is now still living there.
1.Compared with other books about the Royal Family, the biggest advantage of The Final Curtsey is that _______.
A. its author is very famous
B. its author knows the Queen well
C. it presents reader a very different Queen
D. it has pictures that have never been seen
2.When Mrs. Rhodes was offered to live in the Royal farm, she was _______.
A. unhappy B. surprised
C. sad D. disappointed
3.We can learn from Paragraph 3 that Mrs. Rhodes ________.
A. has lived quite a long life
B. was so famous that BBC interviewed her
C. has a close relationship with the royal family
D. has been very busy and kept on changing jobs
4.The passage is mainly about________.
A. a book about royal family
B. the Queen’s life
C. the life of Margaret Rhodes
D. the Queen’s abdication
Not only fashion and music are making a return—houses built in 1970s have proven to be better at cutting energy waste than those built today. The “tea cosy (茶壶套)” design, created in the mid-1970s and built in the early 1980s for low-income people, could provide a blueprint for meeting the Government aims of producing less CO2 from homes.
The 200 houses were designed to provide low-energy housing, and depend on an inner concrete (水泥) structure that holds in heat, protected by highly insulated (隔热的) setting which produces a “tea cosy” effect. The ordinary-looking houses also depend on more windows on south-facing sides, with northerly facing doors protected by porches (门廊).
A study found the houses are 50 percent more energy efficient than the average home and use a quarter of the average energy for space heating. According to researchers, they use less than two-thirds of the power of homes built to meet 2010 building demands. And they will still be 25 percent more efficient than houses built to even more strict proposed demands for 2013. The design is one of the few that will be able to meet 2016 demands for zero-carbon homes.
They were in the beginning fixed with just one or two gas heaters per home, although most now have central heating, depending on the heat from the sun and high insulation to keep steady temperatures inside the house. To be comfortable, they only need to use heating for three to four months a year, compared with seven months for UK home on average, and can be lived with no heating at all.
With many house builders at present worrying that new homes are going to be much more expensive to build in order to meet the Government’s ambitious targets, the“tea cosy”model meets this need perfectly.
1.The underlined word“blueprint”is closest in meaning to _________.
A. photo B. model C. service D. map
2.The writer develops Paragraph 3 mainly by_________.
A. analyzing data
B. giving examples
C. presenting reasons
D. making comparisons
3.According to the passage, “tea cosy” houses are better at __________.
A. saving heat for energy efficiency
B. producing solar energy at home
C. designing and building materials
D. saving building materials and energy
He met her at a party. She was outstanding while he was so normal. After the party, he invited her for coffee. She was surprised but being polite, she agreed.
As they sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything and she felt uncomfortable. Suddenly, he asked the waiter, “Could you please give me some salt? I’d like to put it in my coffee. ” Everyone stared at him. He turned red, but when the salt came, he put it in his coffee and drank. Curious, she asked, “Why salt with coffee? ” He explained, “ When I was a little boy, I lived near the sea. I liked playing on the sea. I could feel the taste of sea, just like this salty coffee. ”
That was a really nice talk, also a good beginning of their story. They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who met all her demands. Then the story was just like every beautiful love story: they got married and lived a happy life.
After 40 years, he passed away and left her a letter which said: My dearest, please forgive my life-long lie. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous that I asked for salt instead of sugar. It was hard for me to ask for a change, so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our conversation. I tried to tell you the truth, but I was afraid that it would ruin everything. I don’t like the salty coffee. But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life just because I love you!
Her tears made the letter totally wet. Someday, someone asked her, “What’s the taste of salty coffee?” She replied, “It’s sweet.”
1.She accepted his invitation after the party because ________.
A. she was pretty B. he met all her demands
C. he was humorous D. she was well-mannered
2.How do you understand the last paragraph?
A. The taste of salty coffee is special.
B. Her husband’s love to her is sweet.
C. Her memory about her life is great.
D. She is used to the taste of the salty coffee.
3.The best title for this passage is ________.
A. The Great Love B. The Salty Coffee
C. A Special Dating D. A Lifelong Lie
书面表达
假定你是李华，你的笔友Jane 最近总是感觉身体不适，因此写信向你询问如何保持健康。请你根据以下要点提示给她回信。
要点提示：1.合理饮食；2. 锻炼身体；3. 保证充足睡眠，不要熬夜。
注意：1. 词数不少于120个（信的开头和结尾已给出，但不计入总词数）；
2．可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jane,
I’m sorry to hear that you are not very well these days.
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes.
Yours sincerely.
Lihua
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。作文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏子符号（∧）并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：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。
When asking about happiness, we often think of something unusual, that seems to be hard to get as we grow older. Sometimes, the more we can enjoy what we have, the happy we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from the company of friend, the freedom to live in where we please, and even good health. So happiness isn’t about something that happens to us, it’s about how we see it in the reasonable way. Generally speaking, we were willing to hold a positive attitude towards things around us, and we should not look forward what we don’t have, but enjoy what they do have.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Everyone needs good friends, because friendship is ___1.____ important relationship for human beings. Good friendship has many benefits, and they can make us open-minded and caring. Our friends will _____2._______(comfortable) us when we are in need. __3.___, it is not easy for us to make good friends. So, ____4._______ should we do to deal with it? First, we should communicate with others bravely, which will make us__5.________(know) by others. Second, the best friendships are the ones that grow naturally, so we should spare time to keep in touch ______6._____ our friends. ____7.____(final), allowing the friends to be themselves is the best way ____8.______(enjoy) the friendship. In__9.___ opinion, making good friends is not difficult for us, only if we go on ___10._______ (step) towards it.
