请你根据以下提示，结合生活中的一个事例，用英语写一篇短文。

Never be afraid of making mistakes. Factually, making progress is making mistakes. Mistakes reveal where success lies.

      注意：（1）无须写标题，不得照抄英语提示语；

            （2）除诗歌外，文体不限；

            （3）文中不得透露个人姓名和学校名称；

            （4）词数为120左右。

完成句子（共10小题；每小题2分，满分20分）

根据句末括号内的英语单词和汉语句子提示，完成下列句子。

71. By the time we take the 2012 College Entrance Exam, we ______________ more than 3,500 words. (master)

到我们参加2012年高考时，我们将会掌握3500多个单词。

72. Not ______________ by a well-known company doesn’t necessarily mean that you have no bright future. (employ)

    不被知名的公司录用并不一定意味着你没有美好的未来。

73. It is required that all high school students ______________ to use cell phones at school. (allow)

  所有高中都有规定，学生在校内不准使用手机。

74. No matter ______________, people are unlikely to be persuaded if the product is unsuitable for them. (good)

  一则广告无论多好，如果产品不合适，也不可能使人信服。

75. As is known to all, practice makes perfect. ______________, the more fluent English you will speak. (practice)

 众所周知，熟能生巧。你练习得越多，你的英语口语就会越好。

76. The typical cases ______________ will be introduced to readers to warn them of potential risks.  (cheat)

    消费者被骗的典型事例将被介绍给读者以提醒他们潜在的风险。

77. The driver was to blame for the accident. Not only ______________ too much alcohol, but he drove beyond limitation. (drink)

  那个司机该对事故负责。他不仅喝了很多酒，还超速驾驶。

78. Misunderstandings arising from lack of communication, unless properly ______________, may lead to serious problems. (deal) 

    除非处理得当，要不然因缺乏交流引起的误解可能会导致严重的问题。

79. In fact, it is the mental addiction rather than the physical effects ______________ to quit smoking. (make)

  事实上，让戒烟困难的不是生理上的影响，而是精神上的依赖。

80. Tom ______________ basketball now. I saw him cleaning the classroom just a moment ago. (play) 

  汤姆现在肯定不在打篮球。就在刚才我还看见他在打扫教室。

Research has long backed the therapeutic (治疗的) value of diary-keeping for teenage girls and boys. But according to a new study, when teenagers detail their sadness onto a blog, the therapeutic value is even greater. Blogging, it seems, can be good for you.

    The study, published in the journal Psychological Services and conducted by Meyran Boniel-Nissim and Azy Barak, psychology professors at the University of Haifa, Israel, found the contact with an online community through a blog made it more effective in relieving (解除) the writer’s social anxiety than a private diary would be.

    To track teenagers’ experiences with blogging, the researchers randomly surveyed high school students in Israel and selected 161 of them who exhibited some level of social anxiety or stress. The teenagers, who averaged 15 years old, said they had difficulty making new friends or relating to their existing friends.

    The teenagers were divided into six groups. The first two groups were asked to blog about their social difficulties, with one group asked to open their posts to comments. The second two groups were asked to blog about whatever struck their adolescent fancy; again, with one group allowing comments. All four groups were told to write in their blogs at least twice a week. As a control, two more groups were told to keep either an old-fashioned print diary or to do nothing at all.

    All of their blog records were then read through by four psychologists to determine the authors’ relative social and emotional state. In all the groups, the greatest improvement in mood occurred among those bloggers who wrote about their problems and allowed commenters to respond.

Interestingly, the commenters on the blogs were quite supportive. “The only kind of surprise we had was that almost all comments made by readers were very positive and constructive in trying to offer support for anxious bloggers,” Dr. Barak wrote in an e-mail.

67. Compared with the traditional diary, the main advantage of blogging is that you can ________.

A. write almost anything in a blog

B. make complaints in a blog

C. keep in touch with others through your blog

D. improve your emotional state through your blog

68. The researchers surveyed the students in Israel in order to _________.

A. make us believe that blogging is a must for teenagers

B. prove blogging is more effective in solving teens’ emotional problems

C. find out their social and emotional state and help them out

D. check if blogging can help improve teens’ emotional state

69. In the most improved group, the bloggers _________.

A. wrote at most twice a week

B. told others whatever they wanted about themselves

C. communicated with readers about their troubles

D. made their social difficulties known to researchers only

70. The main idea of the last paragraph is that bloggers can _________.

A. support anything they like

B. make new friends with anyone

C. turn to the psychology experts for help

D. receive beneficial messages from readers

Competition. It’s a simple word, yet a very complex word that covers many angles when it comes to how gasoline prices are determined. It seems so easy to explain, but don’t let that trick you—it’s incredibly difficult to explain and adequately understand.

Say you’re on a Sunday afternoon drive, and notice a gas station near you charging $3.50. Down the road a few miles, that price could easily be 10 or more cents higher or lower. The question is “how” or “why” is that? Think of it this way. Are you more likely to get a better deal on a car if there are two similar car dealers next to each other? Perhaps, because the dealers are too close. Say there is a third similar car dealer miles away. Is he going to be at the same level of competition and sell his cars for the same price as the two dealers next to each other? Likely not. He may charge more or less. Maybe people don't know there are two other dealers down the road. Maybe the dealer is almost outside of the city and the land value isn't as high, so his taxes aren't as high.

These situations do take place at gas stations. And more factors can impact what a station will charge. Timing can greatly impact what price a station charges as well! Many motorists fail to realize that the price a station pays for gasoline changes daily. If one station gets lucky and buys gas on Monday and the cost goes up Tuesday, the station that bought on Monday doesn’t necessarily have to raise prices like the station that bought on Tuesday. Maybe the station that got caught buying for a higher price on Tuesday will pass that higher cost on by raising its gas price.

Perhaps the difference is what brand the station is---branded stations usually pay a slightly higher cost for their gasoline. In return for paying a higher cost, those stations are guaranteed first supply in case of emergency situations. Independent stations don’t pay as much, but aren’t guaranteed supply.

While competition sounds easy to understand, there are always a large number of factors that could influence what one station charges. Keep in mind how many variables (变数) there are next time you fill up.

63.What could be the best title for the passage?

A. How Competition Impacts Gas Prices

  B. Gas Prices Go Up or Down

  C. Competition---a Very Complex Word

  D. We Can’t Stress Enough the Need for Competition 

64. The example of car dealers is used to show _________.

  A. car prices are determined by car dealers

  B. location is an important factor in pricing

  C. the quality of service matters most

  D. dealing strategy should be flexible

65. The gas prices of a station always change partly because _________.

  A. a gas station always wants to charge more

  B. the gasoline is in great demand

  C. the cost of the gas the station buys varies daily

  D. gas is in greater need on Monday

66. According to the passage, branded stations _________.

  A. spend less money on their gasoline

  B. have more staff than independent stations

  C. charge less for high quality oil

  D. offer a steady oil supply

During the fall months at high school guidance counseling programs, juniors run to the stage to participate in an exercise to help them understand that it is not “where you go” that matters. They hold posters with the names and faces of famous people while their peers (同龄人) and parents shout out with confidence the names of elite (精英) colleges they assume the celebrities attended. The “oohs” and “aahs” follow when they learn that Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropped out of college, that Oprah Winfrey is a graduate of Tennessee State and that Ken Burns graduated from Hampshire College. If even a few stressed students and their anxious parents benefit from this information, it is a worthwhile exercise.

Even better is giving the students a task to identify the happy, successful people in their own circle of family, friends, co-workers and neighbors and challenging them to go and ask “if or where they went to college” as a means of broadening the conversation in their search for a life after high school.

The key to success in college and beyond has more to do with what students do with their time during college than where they choose to attend. A long-term study of 6,335 college graduates published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that graduating from a college where entering students have higher SAT scores -- one marker of elite colleges --- didn’t pay off in higher post-graduation income. Researchers found that students who applied to several elite schools but didn’t attend them --- either because of rejection or by their own choice --- are more likely to earn high incomes later than students who actually attended elite schools.

In a summary of the findings, the bureau says that “evidently, students’ motivation, ambition and desire to learn have a much stronger effect on their future success than average academic ability of their classmates.”

The late author Loren Pope, who wrote Looking Beyond the Ivy League and Colleges That Change Lives, noted that the greater the opportunity for engagement and critical, creative and cooperative learning with staff, peers and community, the more likely the chance for future success.

59. The purpose of the guidance counseling programs is to help students _________.

A.apply for suitable colleges

B. learn about college life

C. choose the most famous colleges

D. know about famous graduates

60. Ken Burns’ example shows that the successful people _________.

A. don’t need support from their friends　　　　　　　　

B. have their own circle of family

C. don’t necessarily graduate from a famous college

D. graduate from a famous college　

61. What contributes most to students’ success in college and after graduation is _________.

A. whether they enter the elite college or not

B. whether they have spared no effort in college or not

C. whether they possess a higher SAT scores or not

D. whether they have famous schoolmates or not

62. According to Loren Pope, future success depends more on _________.

A. staff, peers and community

B. motivation, ambition and desire to succeed

C. average academic ability of the classmates

D. creation, cooperation and opportunity

Talking plants might sound like characters in a fairy tale. But recent scientific studies have shown that plants communicate with each other and with other living things in a surprising number of ways. To understand them, scientists say, we just have to learn their language. Farmers are especially interested in what plants have to say.

“Plants are able to communicate with all sorts of organisms (有机体). They can communicate with giant bacteria, with other plants and with insects. They do this chemically,” said Cahill, an Ecology Professor of the University of Alberta in Canada.
　 Plant scientists are just beginning to understand this chemical “ language”. Cahill says studies have shown, for example, that plants can evaluate conditions in their immediate environment and take appropriate actions. Plants have an ability, for example, to signal pain or discomfort caused by anything from temperature extremes to an insect attack. Jack Schultz, a professor of chemical ecology at the University of Missouri, says when a plant senses that it’s being eaten, it cannot walk away from trouble; on the contrary, it will release a chemical vapor that alerts other plants nearby.
　 “Their language is a chemical language, and it involves chemicals that move through the air that are easy to be changeable, and most of all are smells that we are familiar with,” Schultz explained.
　 “All plants responded to the attack by changing their chemistry to defend themselves,” Schultz recalled.“But we were quite surprised to find that nearby plants also changed their chemistry to defend themselves, even though they were not part of the experiment.”
　 Studies have also shown that plants under attack release pleasant chemicals. Those chemicals attract friendly insects that attack the pests eating the plant.

In the end, plants’ ability to communicate their needs---and our ability to understand them--- could help farmers reduce the use of poisonous chemicals, cut operating costs and limit damage to the environment.

55. The recent scientific studies have shown that plants can _________.

A. communicate with other living things in a chemical way

B. hardly react to any sudden change in temperature

C. use a very special chemical language which is familiar to us

D. respond to the attack by giving off poisonous chemicals

56.When being eaten by an insect, the plant will _________.

A. walk away from trouble

B. change its chemistry to kill the insect

C. release a chemical vapor to “ask” other plants for help

D. give off nice chemicals to attract friendly insects killing the pest

57.The underlined word “alert” most probably means “_________”.

A. warn　　　　　 B. protect　　　　　 C. threaten　 　　　　D. allow

58. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. Communication between Plants　　　 B. A Chemical “Language”

C. Plants Can Talk　　　　　　　　　　 D. How Plants Protect Themselves

At the age of ten I could not figure out what this Elvis Presley guy had that the rest of us boys did not have. I mean, he had a head, two arms and two legs, just like the rest of us. About nine o’clock on Saturday morning I decided to ask Eugene Correthers, one of the older boys, what it was that made this Elvis guy so special. He told me that it was Elvis’ wavy hair and the way he moved his body.

  About half an hour later all the boys in the orphanage（孤儿院）were called to the main dining-room and told we were all going to downtown Jacksonville, Florida to get a new pair of Buster Brown shoes and a hair cut. That is when I got this big idea, which hit me like a ton of bricks. If the Elvis hair cut was the big secret, then that’s what I was going to get.

 All the way to town I told everybody, including the matron（女管家）from the orphanage who was taking us to town, that I was going to look just like Elvis Presley and that I would learn to move around just like he did and that I would be rich and famous one day, just like him.

 When I got my new Buster Brown shoes, I could hardly wait for my new hair cut and now that I had my new Buster Brown shoes I would be very happy to go back to the orphanage and practice being like Elvis.

 We finally arrived at the big barber shop, where they cut our hair for free because we were orphans（孤儿). I looked at the barber and said, “I want an Elvis hair cut. Can you make my hair like Elvis?” I asked him, with a big smile on my face. “Let’s just see what we can do for you, little man,” he said. I was so happy when he started to cut my hair. Just as he started to cut my hair, the matron signed for him to come over to where she was standing. She whispered something into his ear and then he shook his head, like he was telling her “No”. Then he told me they were not allowed to give us Elvis hair cuts. Then I saw my hair falling onto the floor.

51.In the author’s eyes, Elvis Presley was _________.

  A. disgusting        B. admirable          C. ambitious           D. dynamic 

52.  From the passage, we can know that _________.

  A. Buster Brown was more appealing than Elvis Presley

  B. An Elvis hair cut cost the orphans a lot of money

  C. The author was fascinated with the stars Buster and Elvis

  D. The barber was unwilling to give the boy an Elvis hair cut

53. We can learn from the underlined sentence that the boy was _________.

  A. excited to have an Elvis hair cut

  B. worried to think about the secret

  C. anxious to remove the ton of bricks

  D. careful to seize the chance

54. How would the boy probably feel when he walked out of the barber shop?

  A. Delighted.          B. Guilty.          C. Self-satisfied.          D. Depressed.

It was the old lady's birthday. She got up early to be ready for the post. From the second floor flat she could see the postman when he came down the street, and a little boy, Johnnie, _ _31___ her letters from the ground floor on the rare_ _32___ when anything came.
    Today she was sure there would be something. Myra_ _33___ forget her mother's birthday, even if she _ _34___ wrote at other times. Of course Myra was busy, but _ _35___, Enid, the daughter the old lady loved most, died two years ago. Since then Myra had been to see her mother three times, but her husband, Harold, never. 

The old lady was eighty today. She had put on her best dress. Perhaps--perhaps Myra might come. After all, eighty was a _ _36___ birthday, another decade lined or tolerated just as you chose to look at it. _ _37___Myra did not come, she would send a present. The old lady was _ _38___ of that. Two spots of colour _ _39___ her cheeks. She was _ _40___ like a child. She would enjoy her day!
    Now, she stood by the window, _ _41___. The postman turned round the corner on his bicycle. Her heart beat _ _42___. Johnnie had seen him too and ran to the gate. Then clatter (咔嗒声), clatter up the stairs. Johnnie knocked at her door. He had got her post---four envelopes. Three were unclosed cards from old friends. The fourth was closed, in Myra's writing. The old lady felt a sharp pain of _ _43___.There was no parcel for her! Maybe the parcel was too large to come by letter post. That was it. It would come later by parcel post. She said to herself. She must be _ _44___.

Almost _ _45___she tore the envelope open. _ _46___in the card was a piece of paper. Written on the card was a message under the printed Happy Birthday --- Buy yourself something nice with the _ _47___, Myra and Harold. The cheque moved quickly to and fro in the air to the floor like a bird with a broken wing. Slowly the old lady _ _48___to pick it up. Her present! her _ _49___ present! With _ _50___fingers she tore it into little bits.

31. A. took away        B. brought up          C. moved off       D. set down

32. A. occasion         B. opportunity          C. ceremony       D. anniversary

33. A. mustn’t          B. mightn’t            C. wouldn’t        D. needn’t

34. A. occasionally      B. always              C. almost          D. seldom

35. A. unhappily        B. unfortunately         C. unforgettably    D. unkindly

36. A. casual           B. remote              C. special          D. conventional

37. A. Even if          B. So that         C. In case             D. Now that

38. A. proud           B. capable         C. sure               D. afraid

39. A. sharpened        B. weakened      C. widened           D. brightened

40. A. excited          B. alarmed        C. inspired           D. satisfied

41. A. thinking          B. imagining       C. welcoming       D. watching

42. A. steadily           B. wildly         C. nervously         D. randomly

43. A. discontent         B. loneliness      C. disappointment     D. annoyance

44. A. patient            B. anxious       C. urgent             D. mild

45. A. immediately       B. cheerfully      C. angrily            D. unwillingly

46. A. Pinned           B. Folded         C. Lined             D. Roped

47. A. card             B. bonus          C. cheque            D. cash

48. A. bent             B. leaned          C. struggled          D. stretched

49. A. painful           B. sad            C. expensive          D. lovely

50. A. moving          B. trembling        C. reacting           D. freezing

 Currently, some overseas universities are simply selling diplomas to Chinese students __________ their academic performance, so China should check in a regular basis.

A. on account of    B. in addition to   C. regardless of        D. in relation to

 E-mails, though _________ exposed to misleading information, are considered far more convenient than traditional letters.

A. occasionally      B. especially   C. originally           D. naturally