He is the first person you can think of to rely on, for he is always willing to ________ whoever is in trouble.

A. cut out          B. figure out       C. test out         D. help out

It’s reported that workers on London’s underground train network will go on strike（罢工）in ________ with colleagues losing their jobs at ticket offices.

A. annoyance        B. sympathy         C. companion        D. scare

I would love _____ to the party last night but I had to work extra hours to finish a report.

A. to go            B. going            C. to have gone     D. to be going

The boy ________ avoided being run over by a speeding car when crossing the busy street the other day.

A. hardly           B. slightly             C. narrowly         D. gently

There is no doubt that our educational system leaves something __________.

A. being desired        B. to be desired       

C. to desire            D. to have been desired

— I’m mad at what Jack said yesterday.    — ________ ! He was just making a joke.

A. Take your time   B. All the best         C. Lighten up       D. Not at all

As educators, we often never know the influence we have on our students. It is always wonderful to have ___35___ students visit us and share the successes they have achieved. And those glorious moments, when we can instantly see the influence we have on a student, fuel us to continue making connections hoping to ___36___ in the life of every child.

As a music teacher for twenty-seven years, I have always known that music ___37___ the soul. It can ___38___ all kinds of barriers to reach students in a very special way. It can be the ___39___ for each child to find their light. I would like to share a story about it.

For a few years I was blessed with the opportunity to teach ___40___ students one afternoon a week. One of my most ___41___ students was a five-year-old girl called Vanessa, who had difficulty walking, and could not speak. We ___42___ sat on the floor for our music lessons and Vanessa liked to sit on my lap. One of her favorite songs was “John the Rabbit.” It was a call and response song where I sang the call and the students ___43___ twice while singing the repeating phrase, “Oh, yes!” Vanessa liked to ___44___ her hands together with mine and clap with me. We probably performed that song during every class, Vanessa and I clapping together. But she ___45___ said or sang a word.

One day late in the school year, when the song was finished, Vanessa turned around, looked me dead in the eye, clapped her tiny hands twice and said the words “Oh, yes!” I opened my mouth in ___46___ and for that moment I was the one who could not speak. When my heart ___47___ started beating again, I looked over at the assistant teacher to find her also ___48___. Through music, we had made an awesome connection.

Several years later, I passed Vanessa on the street in town. I stopped my car and waved to say hello. She waved back with a big ___49___ on her face and then clapped her hands twice, imitating the song we had ___50___ so many times in our music class. This precious little girl, ___51___ her connection with music, left an impression on me that will last forever. Every child has the ___52___ to learn and grow. It is up to us as educators to ___53___ the way to reach each and every one of our students. We all must find each child’s ___54___.

【题文1】A. late            B. former           C. recent           D. present

【题文2】A. make it     B. make sense       C. make a mess      D. make a difference

1.A. touches        B. saves            C. abandons         D. feels

2.A. get across B. cut down         C. take over        D. break through

3.A. means      B. direction        C. process          D. companion

4.A. disabled       B. normal           C. outgoing         D. junior

5.A. awful      B. elegant          C. memorable        D. sensitive

6.A. partly     B. hardly           C. nearly           D. mostly

7.A. sang           B. whispered        C. yelled           D. clapped

8.A. strike     B. put              C. hit              D. shake

9.A. ever       B. never            C. still            D. even

10.A. horror        B. delight          C. astonishment     D. embarrassment

11.A. immediately   B. completely       C. slowly           D. finally

12.A. scared        B. breathless       C. speechless       D. clumsy

13.A. greeting      B. smile            C. expression       D. affection

14.A. performed B. operated         C. trained          D. recorded

15.A. upon          B. through          C. from             D. beyond

16.A. desire        B. talent           C. ability          D. urge

17.A. discover      B. change           C. test             D. make

18.A. strength      B. dream            C. light            D. dignity

The space shuttle Discovery has had a long and busy career. For 27 years, it has worked for NASA, carrying astronauts to space and back on 39 missions. On March 9, 2011, after returning from its final voyage, the world’s most traveled spaceship was retired.

A crowd of shuttle workers, reporters and schoolchildren waited to greet Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Three minutes before noon, they watched as the shuttle appeared in the sky and made one last touchdown. “For the final time: wheels stop,” Discovery’s commander Steven Lindsey said when the shuttle rolled to a stop.

Discovery’s final trip was to the International Space Station (ISS), a giant space lab in the sky. Discovery’s crew took care of the last U.S. construction project at ISS. They delivered 10 tons of supplies for the ISS. The six-person crew also dropped off an unusual companion for ISS’s researchers: a human-like robot named Robonaut 2. Astronauts will assemble（组装）R2 at the ISS over several months.

Now, NASA is winding down its shuttle programme. NASA is to begin work on new spaceships that can travel longer distances. Discovery’s retirement is the first of three. Endeavor, another shuttle, is scheduled to make its final voyage soon. And Atlantis’s last trip is planned for the end of June.

Museums across the country have requested the retired shuttles. The Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C., was the lucky recipient（接收者）of Discovery. The museum’s collection contains hundreds of NASA artifacts.

Where will the other shuttles go? You’ll have to wait to find out. NASA will announce its decision on April 12, the 30^th anniversary of the first space shuttle launching. Stay tuned!

1.As part of the final mission, Discovery’s crew___________.

A. carried researches to space             

B. assembled the Robonaut 2 at the ISS

C. brought supplies to the ISS             

D. went on a spacewalk

2.The underlined phrase “winding down” in Paragraph 4 probably means _________.

A. improving            B. ending       C. changing         D. testing

3.What can we infer from the text?

A. Discovery completed 39 missions during its two decades of space travel.

B. The ISS is a big project and six researchers live on the station.

C. American space exploration will focus on longer missions.

D. The shuttles Endeavor and Atlantis will make their last missions next month.

4.According to the text, we can learn about ___________.

A. people’s opinions of Discovery’s retirement

B. the government’s concern about the shuttles’ future

C. the shuttles’ final homes after retirement

D. museums’ great interest in the retired shuttles

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Ludgate Hill, EC4

Underground: St. Paul’s; Bus: 6, 8, 11, 15, 22, 25

Open: Daily 8:00-19:00 (17:00 from Oct. to Mar.)

Entrance free

Designed by the great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, St. Paul’s Cathedral was built following the Great Fire of London of 1666, which destroyed the gothic cathedral on the site at that time. It is an inescapable attraction for all travellers to this great city and the most recognisable gothic cathedral in England. Its choir（唱诗班）is internationally famous. Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married here in 1981.

Buckingham Palace

South end of the Mall (SW1)

Underground: St. James’s Park, Victoria, Hyde Park Corner, Green Park; Bus: 2, 11, 14, 16, 19, 22, 24, 29, 30, 38, 52, 73, 74, 137

Buckingham Palace is Queen Elisabeth II’s official residence（住所）, and has been the official residence of Britain’s monarch（君主）since 1837. The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace have been opening to the public for the Annual Summer Opening, in August and September, since 1993. The Queen is not at Buckingham Palace when it is open to the public; she goes to one of her country residences. The State Rooms are extremely grand. You can see many of the treasures of the Royal Collection: paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Canaletto; and beautiful examples of English and French furniture.

The Tower of London

Tower Hill, EC3

Underground: Tower Hill; Bus: 42, 78

Open: Mon.— Sat.9:00-18:00; Sun.8:00-19:00

Parts of the Tower of London are over nine centuries old, as building began under William the Conqueror in 1078. Famous as a prison in the distant past, the Tower has also been a royal residence, a zoo and an observatory（瞭望台）. It is now a museum and many thousands of people visit it every year in particular to see the Crown Jewels. Only by going inside can you experience nearly a thousand years of history and hear the myths and legends that make it “a day out to die for”.

Westminster Abbey

Broad Sanctuary, SW1

Underground: Westminster, St James’s Park; Bus: 3, 11, 12, 24, 29, 39, 53, 59, 76, 77, 88, 109, 155, 168, 170, 172, 184, 503

Open: Daily 8:00-18:00 (Mar. — Dec., Tuesday till 20:00)

Entrance free

Located next to the Houses of Parliament in the heart of London, Westminster Abbey is a gothic church and place of worship. The building of the present Abbey was started by King Henry III in 1245. The oldest parts of the building date back to 1050. Westminster Abbey has hosted many royal weddings including the wedding of The Queen and Prince Philip in 1947 and the wedding of Prince William and Kate in 2011. It is a traditional place of coronation（加冕礼）and burial for English monarchs—38 monarchs have been crowned at the Abbey. There are many tombs there, including those of Queen Elizabeth I, “Bloody” Queen Mary, naturalist Charles Darwin, many poets and writers.

1.You can see the inside of all the buildings all the year around except ______.

A. St. Paul’s Cathedral                        B. the Tower of London 

C. Westminster Abbey                        D. Buckingham Palace

2.The two places you can visit by getting off at the same underground station are ______.

A. Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey     

B. Buckingham Palace and St. Paul’s Cathedral

C. Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London   

D. the Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral

3.Where is the text most probably taken from?

A. A history book about London.            

B. A guidebook for visitors to London.

C. A book about London’s development.     

D. A book about London’s churches.

It’s 10:30 p.m., and 11-year-old Brandon Blanco is sound asleep at home. Suddenly, a loud noise wakes him up. Naturally, Brandon reaches for his cell phone. He blinks twice, and the message on the screen becomes clear: “R U awake?”

But the late-night text does not annoy Brandon. He gets frequent messages and calls, even after bedtime. And he can’t imagine life without them. “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my friends or family as often,” he told the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Brandon’s use of technology doesn’t stop there. He also has a computer, a TV and three video-game consoles（控制台）in his room. With so many devices, it is no surprise that when he is not at school, he spends nearly every waking minute using one or more of these devices. Brandon is hardly alone. According to a recent study by TFK, kids aged 8 to 18 are spending more time than ever before using electronic devices. How much time? More than seven and a half hours a day on average, the study found. That’s about an hour more than just five years ago.

The jump is the result of a huge explosion in mobile devices, says Victoria Rideout, the lead author of the study. “These devices have opened up many more opportunities for young people to use media, whether it’s on the bus, on the way to school or waiting in line at the pizza parlor,” says Rideout.

Often, kids multitask, or use more than one device at a time. “If you’ve got a chance to do something on your computer and take a phone call and have the TV on in the background, why not?” Media expert Cheryl Olson says. Most experts agree technology has much to offer kids. But some worry the kids could be missing out on other activities like playing outside or hanging out with friends. “It’s a matter of balance,” says Olson.

Multitasking while doing homework is another concern. Some kids listen to music, watch TV or use the phone while doing their homework. “It’s important to make sure that you can stop and concentrate on one thing deeply,” says Rideout.

With new and exciting devices hitting stores every year, keeping technology use in check is more important than ever. “Kids should try,” adds Rideout. “But parents might have to step in sometimes.”

1.It can be learned from the text that _________.

A. many teenagers lack friends in their middle school

B. kids have too many electronic devices to choose from

C. Brandon feels annoyed about his late-night message

D. Olson is against teenagers’ using mobile phones

2.Which of the following is an example of multitasking?

A. Watching TV when using the computer.    

B. Talking on the phone when lying on the sofa.

C. Playing video games after having lunch.     

D. Listening to loud music while relaxing.

3.The underlined phrase “in check” in the last paragraph can be replaced by _________.

A. in order         B. in store         C. in control               D. in sight

4.According to the text, Victoria Rideout would probably agree that kids should ______.

A. do homework while watching TV           

B. have less homework

C. spend more time on homework             

D. do homework in a place without disturbance