Just before Christmas in 1994, a letter arrived at our house. The postmark was from Tuskegee, Alabama, so we all knew who it was from. We excitedly gathered around mother as she opened it.
My Dear Mother,
I didn’t get the leave I expected for Christmas. I’ll miss all of you. Please leave the Christmas tree up until I make it back. I hope to be home by March.
Love from your son,
Clifton
My heart sank. I felt profound sadness that my favorite brother wouldn’t be home for Christmas. My mother, being the optimist she always was, said, “Well, it looks like we’ll get to have two Christmases this year!”
After Christmas, my sister and I worked together to make sure we kept that Christmas tree looking as pretty as possible. This was no easy feat. By mid-January, the branches drooped so low to the ground. Each day, ornaments would come crashing to the ground and there were brand new sprinklings of pine needles all over the wooden floor. My sister and I took turns sweeping them up. We repositioned the ornaments to the stronger branches on the tree, hoping they would stay on.
Each time we freshened that tree up, my sister and I were full of thoughts about Clifton and how happy we would be to see him again. It made us feel that he was close by, even though he was hundreds of miles away.
On March 5, the doorbell rang. We ran to the door and gave Clifton a big hug. As he hugged mother, I could see him peek over her head at the Christmas tree.
“It’s beautiful,” he said. “Thank you.” Clifton opened his presents and told us all sorts of stories about his work in Tuskegee. That night as we slept, we heard a crash in the living room. We all ran to see what had happened. The tree had toppled onto the sofa and there were needles and broken ornaments everywhere. We all had a good laugh. It was fortuitous (巧合的) Clifton got home when he did.
1.How did the author feel when he read the letter?
A.Deeply sad. B.Quite annoyed.
C.Very regretful. D.A little disappointed.
2.Why did the author try hard to freshen the Christmas tree up?
A.Because his mother asked him to keep the tree up.
B.Because he wanted to keep all the ornaments on the tree.
C.Because he longed to have another Christmas with his brother.
D.Because he intended to keep the Christmas tree alive until next December.
3.What do you think is the tone of the passage?
A.Approving. B.Upsetting. C.Unconcerned. D.Hopeful.
假如你是李华，计划和同学去敬老院（nursing home）陪老人们国重阳节（the Double Ninth Festival）。请给外教Lucy写封邮件，邀她一同前往，内容包括：
1. 出发及返回时间；
2. 活动：包饺子、表演节目等。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 结语已为你写好。
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Looking forward to your reply.
Yours
Li Hua
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；每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，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：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改的词。
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。
During my last winter holiday, I went to countryside with my father to visit my grandparents. I find a big change there. The first time I went there, they were living in a small house with dogs, ducks, and another animals. Last winter when I went here again, they had a big separate house to raise dozens of chicken. They also had a small pond which they raised fish. My grandpa said last summer they earned quite a lot by sell the fish. I felt happily that their life had improved. At the end of our trip, I told my father that I planned to return for every two years, but he agreed.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
The Chinese have a saying: “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, vinegar and tea are the seven 1. (necessary) to begin a day.” For the Chinese, tea drinking and tasting are not similar. Tea drinking can help us keep up one’s spirit 2.tea tasting has cultural meaning. Tea and tea sets should match 3. (surround) such as the breeze, the bright moon, pines, bamboo and snow. All these show the goal of Chinese culture: the 4. (harmony) unity of human beings with nature.
5. (compare) to personal characters, its flavor is pleasant, low-key and 6. (last). A friendship between gentlemen is also like a cup of tea. 7.a cup of tea in hand, enjoying the green leaves in a white china cup, you will feel the peace, 8.(leave) fame, wealth and other earthly concerns far away.
9.(similar), tea-drinking habits vary in different parts of China. Generally, flowering tea is popular in northern China; green tea 10. (prefer) in eastern China and black tea is fit for people in Fujian and Guangdong. Tea is commonly available not only in Chinese restaurants and grocery shops nationwide but also worldwide.
Now scientists believe that global warming affects hibernating animals, causing them to wake up earlier. _______ this may seem a little concern, it is in fact a significant environmental problem. The _______ hibernation period could actually lead to significant declines in the populations of several species.
Some of the first concrete evidence of the _______ came from Colorado, where researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological lab have been observing marmot (旱獭) hibernation behavior since the 1970s. In the early days of their studies, marmots generally hibernated several weeks into the month of May. Nowadays, _______, temperatures in the area have risen by 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and the marmots are waking up about a month _______.
At least the marmots are _______ hibernating. Several other animals have not been hibernating at all recently. Brown bears in the Spanish Cantabrian Mountains did not hibernate last year. In parts of the United States, chipmunks (花鼠) also _______ the hibernation period. The bears seem to have _______ without losing many individuals. The chipmunks, however, were not so _______. Many of the animals died ________ starvation during the winter.
The problem with animals waking up early, or skipping hibernation altogether ________ the creatures' metabolism (新陈代谢). When an animal hibernates, their metabolism drops significantly. The animals' heart rate ________, and they require very little energy to live. When the animals awake from their winter slumber (睡眠), their metabolism returns to ________.
But while their metabolism may be as active as it was before hibernation, food sources aren't as ________ as they were before. A marmot may wake up when temperatures get ________, thinking it's spring, but plants will not have gotten the amount of sun they need to signal their spring period of growth. So until the plants grow, the marmots have no ________ food source.
Many scientists believe the problem will continue to get ________. ________ changes in hibernation patterns, some believe that other animals will also begin to change their migration patterns or begin to give birth earlier. For many biologists, that's a ________ prospect. Terry Root, an animal expert at Stanford University, said: "I do think what we will be facing is the ________ of many species."
1.A.When B.But C.While D.So
2.A.increased B.shortened C.declined D.spread
3.A.phenomenon B.atmosphere C.circumstance D.situation
4.A.but B.so C.therefore D.however
5.A.later B.earlier C.longer D.before
6.A.still B.thus C.never D.not
7.A.entered B.failed C.skipped D.lost
8.A.died B.lived C.survived D.existed
9.A.delighted B.lucky C.mild D.refreshed
10.A.from B.in C.with D.of
11.A.lie down B.lie with C.get into D.get along with
12.A.decreases B.slows C.stops D.falls
13.A.abnormal B.average C.ordinary D.normal
14.A.available B.rich C.full D.enough
15.A.hotter B.better C.cooler D.warmer
16.A.steady B.reliable C.casual D.fixed
17.A.unfortunate B.harmful C.disappointed D.worse
18.A.In addition to B.As a result of C.Due to D.In spite of
19.A.desperate B.hopeful C.scary D.eager
20.A.survival B.tendency C.existence D.extinction
Much of the work in today’s world is accomplished(完成) in teams. Most people believe the best way to build a great team is to gather a group of the most talented individuals. 1.Companies spend millions hiring top business people. Is their money well spent?
2.They focused on football, basketball and baseball. The results are mixed. For football and basketball, adding talented players to a team proves a good method, but only up to the point where 70% of the players are top talent; above that level, the team’s performance begins to decline. Interestingly, this trend isn’t evident in baseball, where additional individual talent keeps improving the team’s performance.
To explain this phenomenon, the researchers explored the degree to which a good performance by a team requires its members to coordinate(协调) their actions. 3.In baseball, the performance of individual players is less dependent on teammates. They conclude that when task interdependence is high, team performance will suffer when there is too much talent, while individual talent will have positive effects on team performance when task interdependence is lower. If a basketball star is, for example, trying to gain a high personal point total, he may take a shot himself when it would be better to pass the ball to a teammate, affecting the team’s performance. Young children learning to play team sports are often told, “There is no I in TEAM.” 4.
Another possibility is that when there is a lot of talent on a team, some players may make less effort. Just as in a game of tug-of-war(拔河比赛), whenever a person is added, everyone else pulls the rope with less force.
5. An A-team may require a balance--not just A players, but a few generous B players as well.
A.It’s not a simple matter to determine the nature of talent.
B.Sports team owners spend millions of dollars attracting top talent.
C.The group interaction and its effect drew the researchers’ attention.
D.Stars apparently do not follow this basic principle of sportsmanship.
E.Several recent studies examined the role of talent in the sports world.
F.Building up a dream team is more complex than simply hiring the best talent.
G.This task interdependence distinguishes baseball from football and basketball.
