Khan Academy is a website providing a free education for any person. The website includes more than 4,000 short teaching videos about many different subjects. Every month, over 7 million people go to the Khan Academy website to watch its videos.

Khan Academy began with one man named Salman Khan. As a young man, Khan got a degree from Harvard Business School and began to work in business.

In 2006, Khan used the Internet to help his young cousins, who lived far away, with their mathematics schoolwork. He drew numbers and pictures on the website to teach them. After a time, he put his videos onto the website YouTube, where his cousins could watch them any time they wanted. But Khan noticed that other people were also watching his videos on YouTube.

By 2009, the number of people watching his videos on YouTube was getting very large. Khan decided to make the videos his job instead. So he officially began Khan Academy, providing videos on mathematics and other school subjects.

People did not have to pay to watch the videos. But they could give Khan money if they wanted to support (支持) his work. Some people did give Khan small amounts of money, but he was still having a hard time. Later, a woman told Khan that Bill Gates uses Khan Academy for his kids. After that, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began giving money to Khan Academy. In 2010 Google gave the website money too, wanting Khan to translate his videos into the world’s most common languages. Today, people can see Khan’s videos in many different languages.

Some people think that Khan Academy will be the way more and more people learn in the future. Teachers can use it in their classrooms. Khan believes that Khan Academy will never, and should never, replace a school. But he believes teachers and students can use it to make schools better.

1.What can one get from Khan Academy?

A. Video-making methods.

B. Free learning information.

C. Any help with the schoolwork.

D. A good number of beautiful pictures.

2.Salman Khan started Khan Academy _____.

A. in 2006

B. as a student

C. to satisfy the needs of learners

D. under the influence of his cousins

3.What does Salman Khan think of Khan Academy?

A. It will play an active role in school teaching.

B. It can replace teachers in classrooms.

C. It can replace a teaching school.

D. It’s the future of education.

The Tower of London, not a single tower but a large group, was built to guard London.

Besides William and Henry VIII, the tower’s history has other famous names in British history. In 1389 a clerk of works (现场监工员) named Geoffrey Chaucer — author of The Canterbury Tales — oversaw (监督) the building of the Tower Wharf. In 1671 Colonel Blood tried to steal the crown jewels (皇冠上镶的宝石) after overpowering the elderly Jewel House keeper. (Blood was caught but later pardoned.) Today the jewels remain in the tower as they have since Blood’s day.

For six centuries this place was also home to a group of animals from elephants to big cats. It stopped being used as an animals’ home in 1835 and its animals were moved to the London Zoo.

Today visitors can walk the walls, visit guard towers and see the crown jewels. Guards at the tower, popularly known as beefeaters, not only guard the tower but also give interesting tours that are among the most popular parts of any visit.

How to Get There

Trains and the Dockland Light Railway stop near the tower. Buses 15, 42, 78 and 100 reach the tower, and riverboats stop at Tower Pier. Taxis, bicycles, and foot power are also good ways to reach the tower. Driving is a less attractive choice because of the expensive parking.

When to Go

The tower is open all year round, except during the Christmas holidays (December 24 to 26) and January 1. School holidays and summertime are the busiest times.

How to Visit

As expected at a place that has seen so much history, there is enough of interest at the Tower of London to keep visitors busy for days. Stop at the Welcome Center for visitor information on everything from the crown jewels to family fun activities.

1.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 shows _____.

A. the tower was built by famous people

B. some famous people caused trouble there

C. there were many famous people in British history

D. there were many interesting stories connected to the tower

2.Beefeaters at the tower _____.

A. have two roles B. like to eat beef

C. seem very serious D. often joke with visitors

3.According to the text, the Tower of London is _____.

A. easy to reach B. full of parked cars

C. busy all year round D. a perfect place for a one-day tour

Quite a few years ago, as I celebrated my 25th birthday with a party, I was surprised to receive an unusual present. The gift-giver smiled widely and said loudly, “It’s a nice, strong plant, so even you can’t kill it.”

I was well known in my circle of friends as an “anti-gardener” — how was I going to care for this piece of greenery?

For four years the plant received little care. I felt guilty (内疚的) just looking at it!

As a non-gardener, my offers to look after friends’ houses were met with laughter: “We appreciate (感激) the offer but, really, we don’t want to come home to a dead garden!” It didn’t occur to (想到) them that I just had no interest in having a garden. It was a choice, not a failing.

Some time later my husband accepted a job in Belgium. Because I couldn’t throw away a gift, I decided to ask my neighbor to care for my plant.

Our lovely house in Belgium had a beautiful garden. Slowly gardening became a part of my daily life, teaching me to slow down and to be happy in the silence of the garden. It was with regret that I left that garden to return to Sydney some months later.

Back home life soon went back to normal. Then one day, it occurred to me that I could start my own little garden. So, I went to collect my unwanted plant from my neighbor. I took the plant home, watered it and watched as its leaves turned from a lifeless yellow to a rich green within weeks. Many years on, I still don’t know the name of my first plant, but I do know that as it grows, so do I. It symbolises a change in me when I stopped listening to the voices around me and started to believe in myself.

1.When the author received a plant as a birthday gift, she felt _____.

A. funny B. guilty C. excited D. displeased

2.What did the author’s friends think of her?

A. Her anti-gardening was a weakness.

B. She was bored with gardening.

C. She was a good housekeeper.

D. Her dead garden was ugly.

3.How did the author deal with the plant before moving away?

A. She threw it away.

B. She asked for help.

C. She left it in the house.

D. She gave it to a neighbor as a gift.

4.The author’s stay in Belgium made her _____.

A. miss her days back in Sydney

B. feel sorry for her first plant

C. fall in love with gardening

D. become strangely silent

5.What does the author want to tell us from her experience?

A. We should try to be perfect.

B. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.

C. We should learn to make clear choices.

D. Don’t refuse something you’ve never tried.

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 to unlock your talent

Search

To find your hidden talent (才能), you’ll have to search for it! We all know people who are great at drawing or good at sports, don’t we? They’re the lucky ones who have a natural talent for what they love doing. 1. It’s just that we might have to look a little bit harder, that’s all!

Try

2. Developing a new talent takes time and lots of effort, so don’t worry if you haven’t discovered yours by the end of the day, the week or even the month. You will get your light-bulb (灵感) moment finally!

Ask

Ask for help to get you started. Do you have an aunt who can help you start a blog or a sporty mom who’ll get active with you? 3. Sometimes we don’t need to look further than our own families to see what skills can be passed down to us!

4.

Find out what excites you! The more enthusiastic (热情的) you are about a hobby, the more you’ll want to keep doing it. And, you’ve guessed it, the more you keep doing it, the better you’ll get!

New ideas

Be open to new ideas. There’s no point saying that you can’t write a book or take amazing photos if you’ve never really tried. 5.

A. Get excited

B. Don’t give up

C. It won’t happen overnight.

D. Is your grandma great at making cakes?

E. Make today your day to try something new.

F. Have you ever doubted what you’re doing now?

G. But that doesn’t mean we can’t all find something we’re good at.

I was born with a heart disease. As I grew up, parts of my heart started to ____ and I was often out of breath. So when I was eight, the doctors opened my chest to ____ it. When they saw the state of my heart, they told my parents, “We don’t expect him to ____ the night.” I was in and out of a coma (昏迷) for three months. Every day the fact that I wasn’t ____ was a good thing.

Finally, the doctors ____ I’d be better off at home — saying that I wasn’t going to live long. But I ____ and had something close to a ____ childhood. As a teenager, I began to ____ heart failure again. But I was ____ to go to college, become a manager and get married to Jo.

I started my own ____ so I could work flexible (灵活的) hours, ____ Jo and I had two children: Josh and Liam. I ____ to keep a good standard of life for everyone, even when I was waking up feeling sick every morning. By January last year, my heart failure was so ____ I often couldn’t walk more than a few yards.

I was worried about not being around for my ____. I had to explain to Josh that the ____ telling me an organ (器官) had been found could come any time and I’d be rushed to hospital, perhaps ____ I could say goodbye. A few days later, the phone rang and Josh said, “Is that the doctor with your new ____?” However it was ____ a salesman.

May 4 was the day a transplant (移植) match was found. I was out of hospital within five weeks and, within a few ____, feeling much better. By October, I was taking part in a 30-mile bike ride.

These days I spend a lot of time talking to kids with heart ____. I want to support others who’ve had a hard time.

1.A. feel B. fail C. improve D. work

2.A. repair B. discover C. hear D. prevent

3.A. stay B. waste C. see D. last

4.A. dead B. sad C. sick D. worried

5.A. expected B. decided C. required D. learned

6.A. went out B. gave up C. looked back D. carried on

7.A. lucky B. normal C. busy D. poor

8.A. stop B. accept C. experience D. examine

9.A. ready B. likely C. able D. sure

10.A. ride B. family C. holiday D. company

11.A. and B. but C. since D. unless

12.A. waited B. tried C. agreed D. offered

13.A. easy B. quiet C. bad D. strange

14.A. children B. parents C. wife D. doctors

15.A. person B. letter C. call D. note

16.A. when B. before C. although D. if

17.A. heart B. bike C. drug D. address

18.A. then B. yet C. just D. soon

19.A. days B. weeks C. months D. years

20.A. conditions B. problems C. operations D. transplants

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

The Amber Room1.(put) up in 1709. It used to belong2.Frederick William I, the first King of Prussia. Peter the Great fell in love with the room on a visit, and in 1716 the King of Prussia sent it to Peter the Great as a gift.

The Amber Room was shipped to Russia in 18 large boxes and put in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg as a part of a European art collection. It was first open in 1746 in the Winter Palace,3.it was housed till 1755. In 1755, Czarina Elizabeth ordered the room4.(move) to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin. An Italian5.(art) Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli redesigned the room to fit into its new larger space,6.(use) extra amber from Berlin.

7.seems hard to believe that boxes of several tons of amber could go missing, and many historians have tried to solve the mystery. Most of them believe8.the boxes were destroyed in the Second World War. One of the more extreme theories is that Stalin9.(actual) had a second Amber Room and the Germans stole a fake (赝品).

The history of the new Amber Room, at least, is known for sure. The reconstruction (重建),10.was based largely on black and white photographs of the original Amber Room, began in 1979 at Tsarskoye Selo and was completed 25 years later.

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 getting nervous about doing maths at school. I was worried about making mistakes and I often think I wasn’t as well at maths as some of the boys in my class. Besides, I was terrible afraid that I would be laughed by others. My mother told me that my problem lay in the fact that I cared too much about how others saw her and suggested I believed in myself. Now I always put my hands up in class to answer a question. I know that there is something to be afraid of because of even if I get the answers wrong, I can learn from my mistakes.

假设你是李华，你的笔友Jason 对中国文化非常感兴趣，打算来中国参观一些世界文化遗产。请你根据所给信息，给Jason写一封电子邮件，介绍洛阳的龙门石窟。

注意: 1. 词数100左右（开头和结尾已给出，但不计入总词数）；2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear Jason,

I am glad to know you are coming to visit China. I am writing to recommend one of the World Heritage Sites in China — Longmen Grottoes.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

I hope you’ll have a good time in China.

Yours,

Li Hua

1.The beautiful scenery and the places of interest of our city a________________ thousands of visitors every year.

2.They had no time to a________________ their own wedding, so they had it organized by a company.

3.Jack f________________ the map up and put it into his pocket.

4.You can easily c________________ any problems.

5.To their d________________, their son was admitted into a famous university.

6.Our team c________________ of ten members.

7.He can a________________ more work in a day than anyone else I know in the company.

8.A witness has given the police a very detailed d________________ of the man who robbed the bank.

9.If something is done for your c________________, it is done in a way that is suitable or useful for you.

10.There is no p________________ that a similar tsunami will happen in the same places again.

1.She ________________(折叠) the letter in half and put it into her pocket.

2.It is a pity that the industrial cities built in the nineteenth century don't ________________(吸引) visitors.

3.A big class ________________(组成) of 100 students is hard to manage.

4.What you say now is not ________________(一致的,相符的) with what you said last week.

5.I hope that what I say will ________________(澄清) the situation.

6.They often ________________(争吵) with each other about whose turn it is to cook the dinner.

7.They had no time to ________________(筹备、安排) their own wedding, so they had it organized by a company.

8.In this resort, you can enjoy all the comfort and ________________(便利) of modern tourism.

9.To our ________________(高兴), we all passed the exam.

10.It is not wise, even foolish, to end ________________(冲突) with violence. There must be good ways to solve the problem.

11.The ________________(辉煌的) image of Lei Feng will forever live in the heart of the people.

12.Does the ________________(描述) fit your personality?

13.You should not try to ________________(完成) two tasks at once.

14.The boy followed his mother's advice ________________(不情愿地).

15.Soldiers still wore the four? hundred?-year?-old ________________(制服) of the time of Queen Elizabeth I.