The bus screamed to a stop in Nazareth, Israel. Five Australian backpackers boarded and struck up a conversation with me. They asked typical travelers’ questions—where was I going and why was I traveling alone? My plan was to travel with a friend of a friend, I explained, but when I called her that morning, she didn’t pick up and I had no other way to reach her. My stomach was in knots, but I decided to head out anyway, thinking I might run into her if I traveled to Tiberius, where we had planned to go together.
“Why don’t you travel with us?” one of the backpackers offered. They were experienced adventurers who would work for a few months, save, then travel for as long as they could. Their current plan was to explore the Middle East and Europe in three months while working in London.
It seemed risky to travel with strangers, but my instinct said yes. For the next two weeks, I explored Israel with the backpackers and learned to trust my instincts in all types of new and interesting situations. When they hook a ride, I took the bus, but when they wanted to steal into the King David Hotel’s swimming pool, I led the way. The world opened up to me because I chose to travel alone. I joined complete strangers, who become close friends. Years later, one couple from the backpacking group even flew from Sydney to Phoenix to be in my wedding. The trip was such a special experience that it gave me confidence in all areas of my life. Since then, I’ve backpacked alone across South Africa, sky-dived from 12,000 feet in New Zealand and even moved across the U.S. with no job lined up.
On my third day wandering in Israel with my new friends, I bumped into the woman I was supposed to meet. Though I was happy she was all right, I was grateful she hadn’t picked up the phone.
1.By “My stomach was in knots” (in paragraph 1), the author most likely means that she was ______.
A.sick of riding on a bumpy bus B.nervous of meeting strangers
C.upset about the sudden change D.sorry about the impractical plan
2.Which of the following best describes the backpackers the author met?
A.Courageous but disrespectful. B.Jobless and poorly educated.
C.Warmhearted and trustworthy. D.Homeless but lighthearted.
3.The author’s sixth sense told her that ______.
A.she would get along with the backpackers B.it might cause trouble to have a swim
C.she ought to stay away from the backpackers D.it could add excitement to get a free ride
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Most of the backpackers became the author’s lifelong friends.
B.The author gathered the courage to be a fulltime backpack traveler.
C.The woman missed the phone call with the purpose of traveling alone.
D.The author considered it the best decision of her life to travel on her own.
Space exploration has always been the province of ________：The human imagination readily soars where human ingenuity (创造力）struggles to follow. A Voyage to the Moon, often cited as the first science fiction story, was written by Cyrano de Bergerac in 1649. Cyrano was dead and buried for a good three centuries ________the first manned rockets started to fly.
In 1961, when President Kennedy declared that America would send a man to the moon by the ________'s end, those words, too, had a dreamlike quality. They resonated with optimism and ambition in much the same way as the most famous ________ speech of all, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. two years later. By the end of the decade, both visions had yielded concrete results and________American society. And yet in many ways the two dreams ended up ________each other. The fight for racial and economic equality is intensely pragmatic (讲求实用的）and immediate in its impact. The urge to explore space is just the opposite. It is figuratively and literally otherworldly in its ________.
When the dust settled, the space dreamers lost out. There was no grand follow-up to the Apollo missions. The technologically compromised space shuttle program has just come to an end, with no ________. The perpetual argument is that ________ are tight, that we have more pressing problems here on Earth. Amid the current concerns about the federal deficit, reaching toward the stars seems a dispensable luxury—________ saving one-thousandth of a single year’s budget would solve our problems.
But human ingenuity struggles on. NASA is developing a series of robotic probes that will get the most bang from a buck. They will serve as modern Magellans,________out the solar system for whatever explorers follow, whether man or machine. On the flip side, companies like Virgin Galactic are plotting a bottom-up assault on the space dream by making it a reality to the public. Private spaceflight could lie within ________ of rich civilians in a few years. Another decade or two and it could go mainstream.
The space dreamers end up benefiting all of us—-not just because of the way they expand human knowledge, or because of the spin-off _______ they produce, but because the two types of dreams feed off each other. Both Martin Luther King and John Kennedy appealed to the idea that humans can ________what were once considered inherent limitations. Today we face seeming challenges in energy, the environment, health care. Tomorrow we will transcend these as well, and the dreamers will deserve a lot of the credit. The more evidence we collect that our species is ________greatness, the more we will actually achieve it.
1.A.dreamers B.explorers C.astronomers D.novelists
2.A.after B.before C.until D.while
3.A.year B.quarter C.century D.decade
4.A.inspiring B.public C.dream D.freedom
5.A.attacked B.industrialized C.transformed D.accessed
6.A.in conflict with B.in line with C.in common with D.keeping pace with
7.A.aims B.influence C.concerns D.terms
8.A.ancestor B.successor C.forefather D.advocate
9.A.situations B.securities C.funds D.schedules
10.A.just like B.on condition that C.as if D.so that
11.A.making B.figuring C.sweeping D.mapping
12.A.reach B.range C.control D.knowledge
13.A.productions B.chips C.technologies D.substitutes
14.A.go beyond B.go through C.go after D.go over
15.A.In ignorance of B.capable of C.proud of D.in favor of
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word；for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
There seems never1.a civilization without toys, but when and how they developed is unknown．They probably came about just to give children something to do．
In the ancient world, as is today, most boys played with some kinds of toys and most girls with2.．In societies where social roles are rigidly determined, boys pattern their play after the activities of their fathers and girls 3.(prepare), even in play, to step into the roles and responsibilities of the adult world．
4.is remarkable about the history of toys is not so much how they changed over the centuries but 5.they have remained the same．The changes have been mostly in terms of craftsmanship, mechanics, and technology．It is the universality of toys with regard to their development in all parts of the word and their persistence to the present 6.is amazing．In Egypt, America, China, Japan and among the Arctic (北极的)people, generally the same kinds of toys appeared．Variations depended on local customs and way of life 7. toys imitate their surrounding．Nearly every civilization had dolls, little weapons, toy soldiers, tiny animals and vehicles．
Because toys can be generally regarded as a kind of art form, they have not been subject to technological leaps 8. characterize inventions for adult use. The progress from the wheel to the cart to the automobile is a direct line of ascent (进步)．The progress from a rattle (拨浪鼓)used by a baby in 3000BC to 9.used by an infant today, however, is not characterized by inventiveness. Each rattle is the product of the artistic tastes of the times and subject 10.the limitations of available materials.
高二下学期已经过半。高三正在向同学们招手。随着学习压力和心理压力日益加大。一些同学的正常生活受到影响，如睡眠不好。身体也开始亮起了红灯。假如你是李华，请你根据以下要点，给学校的英语刊物写一篇稿子，向同学们提出建议，并简述理由或举例说明：
1.劳逸结合；2.健康饮食：3.适当锻炼：4.保持乐观心态。
注意：1.短文必须包括所列内容：
2.词数100左右：3.文章开头已给出。
Dear Editor,
With the approach of Senior 3 studies, students in the second half of Senior 2 are under increasingly great pressure.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
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(\)划抻.
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在其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。
I used to being a substitute in our school’s football team. I didn’t play many on the field. However, I attended every team practice and tried my best to play on the field, if giving the chance. Last week, my coach informs me that I had been accepted as a player. I was not sure that I was fully prepared for the position or not. But my coach said he had seen my hard work and had faith me. I was so exciting that I couldn’t go to a sleep all night. I promised oneself that I would try harder but never give up my dream.
语法填空
Few words 1. (speak) more often every day on the streets of Britain than “I’m sorry”. This phrase has become such a common 2. (respond) that it has taken on a lot of meanings.
Sorry means to apologize. This is simple and easy to understand. But in Britain, it takes on another meaning. It is a 3. (culture) expression. Imagine this: a man walks down the street, 4. (look) down at his phone. A woman is walking in the opposite direction toward the man. She sees him, but she can’t get out of the way in time. The man 5. (knock) into the woman. Who should say sorry? Naturally, the man should say sorry, because it was he who wasn’t looking 6. he was going. Yet in Britain, it is common 7. both to apologize. It is known that British people, like most people, do not enjoy conflict. So to quickly calm the situation. British people will apologize to each other.
Other times 8. may sound funny to hear “sorry”: Some of my friends say it at restaurants, as they ask the waiter: “Sorry, but can I order another drink?” It is not to apologize, 9. just to express that we need the waiter. In Britain, sorry doesn’t always mean 10. (exact) what you think.
