A 26-year-old Montreal man appears to have succeeded in his quest to barter a single， red paper clip(夹子) all the way up to a house. It took almost a year and 14 trades， but Kyle MacDonald has been offered a two-storey farmhouse in Kipling， Sask.， for a paid role in a movie.

MacDonald began his quest last summer when he decided he wanted to live in a house. He didn’t have a job， so instead of posting a resumé， he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an Internet website. The response was immediate —a fish pen was offered for exchange. MacDonald then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle.

In Massachusetts， MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. soldier in California for a generator. Then he exchanged the generator for an “instant party kit” — an empty keg(小桶) and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. MacDonald then traded the keg and sign for a snowmobile. He bartered all the way up to an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper， a KISS snow globe and finally a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie.

“Now， I’m sure the first question on your mind is， ‘Why would Corbin Bernsen trade a role in a film for a snow globe？ A KISS snow globe，’ MacDonald said on his website.”Well， Corbin happens to be arguably one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet.

Now， the town of Kipling， Sask.， Canada， with a population of 1,100， has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie. The town is going to hold a competition for the movie role.

MacDonald said： “There’re people all over the world that are saying that they have paper clips clipped to the top of their computer， or on their desk or on their shirt， and it proves that anything is possible and I think to a certain degree it’s true.”

MacDonald， who has attracted international media attention in his quest， said the journey has turned out to be more exciting than the goal. “This is not the end. This may be the end of this part of the story， but this story will go on.”

The best title for this passage is “　　　　”.

A.A lucky paper clip    B. From poor to rich

C.A lucky young man   D. From paper clip to house

The underlined word in line 1 means 　　　　.

A. to get something for free    B. to sell something at a price

C. to sell goods on the Internet  D. to exchange goods for other goods

Which shows the correct order of the trades？

A. Paper clip?snow globe?snowmobile?house

B. Paper clip?keg of beer?doorknob?snowmobile

C. Paper clip?camp stove?snowmobile?movie role

D. Paper clip?keg of beer?camp stove?snowmobile

Which statement about MacDonald’s trades is TRUE？

A. All of his trades were done in his country.

B.A film role was offered due to Bernsen’s hobby.

C. They took over a year and some of them were really unbelievable.

D. The house in Kipling has been offered to MacDonald to attract media.

What can we learn about MacDonald？

A. He wanted to gain fame through his quest.

B .His success largely depended on the Internet.

C. He never expected his aim could be achieved.

D. He intends to begin another quest on the Web.

There are many customs and traditions connected to yearly celebrations which are part of Britain’s folklore (民俗). Lughnasadh is a celebration at the beginning of August. A custom connected with it is to make corn dolls with corn from the last of the harvest. The doll is saved until the following spring when it is put back into the earth with new seeds. People believe that the doll contains the spirit of the corn and will bring a good harvest. Christmas too is full of ancient customs. The traditions of lighting a fire and decorating the home with an evergreen have their roots in times long before Christianity. The fire is to keep away evil spirits and fill the home with light and the evergreen is valued because it is a sign that life continued during those cold, dark days.

Not all the origins of ancient traditions are remembered, however. The roots of Morris dancing, for example, are not known. This is a dance in which men (and sometimes women ) dressed in white dance together. Some people think the dance may be from pre-Christmas times, and others say it was introduced into Britain in the late 15^th century and that it comes from Moorish dancing. In any case, it is interesting to see that Morris dancing is not a dying tradition. There are Morris dancing groups in places as far away as New Zealand and San Francisco!

Although these customs have been passed down to us from forgotten generations, they themselves have not been forgotten and continue to play a part in our modern lives. Every week groups of individuals regularly meet to sing, play instruments or practice ancient dances and this month people all over Britain shall be preparing their homes for the ancient celebration we now call Christmas, lighting fires and putting up Christian trees, just as their great-great–grandfathers once did.

Why are corn dolls used to celebrate Lughnasadh? （no more than 14 words）

___________________________________________

How do people celebrate Christmas according to the passage?（no more than 10 words）

___________________________________________

What idea does the underlined sentence try to support ? （no more than 11words）

___________________________________________

What’s the main idea of the passage? ( no more than 9 words) 

  ___________________________________________

The experiment shows that proper amounts of exercise, if         regularly, can improve our health. 

A．being carried out    B．carrying out C．carried out          D．to carry out

The price system is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as        of a great number of services.

A. the one        B. that           C. ones          D. those

They were pretty poor but most of their friends were even          .

       A．richer       B．badly off  C．worse off  D．well off

With the address I had no ______ in finding Mr. White’s house.

 A. troubles  B. mistakes     C. difficulty D. difficulties、

Tired of telling students to ask questions and to think about what they were doing, Damien Hynes, a high school geography teacher in Australia, decided to do an experiment to test what he had long been thinking．He wrote some well-organized nonsense （something untrue） on the blackboard．The students simply copied it but very few asked any questions．This shows that students are willing to believe anything given by teachers．The story is repeated in support of the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning （PEEL）．

       PEEL was carried out by some teachers and researchers in Melbourne who had concluded that normal teaching methods seldom achieve their intended goals; what the teachers think they are teaching is one thing and what the students actually learn is something else．Students’ lack of an over-all view of learning goals and their concentration on test scores make them see each lesson as a separate activity．

       Researchers realized that many students do not come into class empty-headed but have their own explanations of how the world works．Their own ideas can remain important to them even when they differ from scientific explanations that are learned later．In fact such ideas are hardly affected by traditional teaching．Students accept the teacher’s scientific explanation, but do not drop their own．They simply keep both and use them practically: in a class test, they copy the teacher’s idea, but in real life they use their own．

       Clearly what was needed was to make students understand their learning process（过程）, and this is what the PEEL teachers set out to deal with．On the surface,（表面） a class being taught by PEEL methods only differs from an ordinary class in being a little noisier, because more people are talking．But there are some meaningful changes．Students are given much more time to express their views, and teachers don’t make immediate judgment．The students are allowed to guide what is done in class and their own ideas are always respected．This draws their attention to the actual learning process, and they become responsible for their own progress．

The aim of Hynes’ experiment was to ______．

       A．show that students didn’t think about what they learnt

       B．prove the effectiveness of the project known as PEEL

       C．test students’ general knowledge about geography

       D．encourage students to ask more questions in class

Why did some teachers and researchers carry out PEEL?

       A．To ensure teachers do scientific work．

       B．To help students get higher test scores．

       C．To find the differences between what is taught and learnt．

       D．To help normal teaching methods achieve their goals．

An important difference between PEEL and non-PEEL classes is that in the PEEL classes ______．

       A．the teacher does not give the usual scientific explanations

       B．students always have their own knowledge of the subject

       C．more attention is paid to the students’ own ideas

       D．the best explanations are given by the students

What is Damien Hynes？

       A．He is a teacher who teaches geography in a high school in Australia

       B．He is a geography teacher and a researcher in Australia

       C．He is a teacher teaching geography in a high school in Austria

       D．He is a high school geography teacher in Austria．

---Sorry．I shouldn’t have been so rude to you．

       ---You ____ your temper but that’s OK．

       A．have lost       B．had lost  C．did lose  D．were losing

Mother told Jim to watch the milk until it boiled and then _________ off the gas.

       A. turn    B. turning       C. turned        D. having turned

People in the west make ____ a rule to buy Christmas presents for their relatives and friends.

    A. it             B. that             C. this              D. as