When I was 12，all I wanted was a signet(图章) ring.They were the “in” thing and it seemed every girl except me had one.On my 13th birthday，my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials(姓名首字母) carved into it.I was in heaven.

What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn’t being “replaced”．We’d been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the “new” stuff(东西) we got was really just to replace what we’d lost.But not my ring.My ring was new.

Then，only one month later，I lost it.I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning.I was sad and searched everywhere for it.But it seemed to have disappeared.Eventually，I gave up and stopped looking for it.And two years later，we sold the house and moved away.

Years passed，and a couple of moves later，I was visiting my parents’ when Mum told me that she had something for me.It wasn’t my birthday，nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift?giving occasion.Mum noticed my questioning look.“You’ll recognize this one，” she said，smiling.

Then she handed me a small ring box.I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside.

The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations，which included replacing the carpets.When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom，they found the ring.As it had my initials carved into it，they realized who owned the ring.They’d had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother.

And it still fits me.(2013·福建，A)

1.The underlined word “in” in the first paragraph probably means “________”．

A．fashionable? B．available

C．practical? D．renewable

2. When she got the ring back，the writer was about ________.

A．13 years old? B．15 years old

C．26 years old? D．28 years old

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The writer’s family moved several times.

B．The writer never stopped looking for her ring.

C．The writer’s ring was cleaned up by the new house owner.

D．The writer lost her ring in the morning when she took it off.

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．My New Ring? B．Lost and Found

C．Lost and Replaced? D．An Expensive Ring

完形填空 （共20小题， 每题1.5分， 共30分）

Today I am known for my voice. But it  31  a long time to believe I could read well. When I was young I stuttered (结巴)  32  badly that I was completely  33  to speak in public.

     34  , when I was 14, Professor Donald Crouch came to our school. He was a retired college professor. He held a book of poems  35   it were a diamond necklace. When he heard our school was  36  Shakespeare, he could no longer   37  not being a part of our school.

When he  38  that I not only loved poetry but was  39  it, we became closer. There was, however, one  40   between us—Professor Crouch could not stand the  41  that I refused to read my poems to the class.

“Jim, poetry is 42 to be read aloud,” he said. “You should be able to speak those beautiful words.” I shook my head and  43  .

    Then he tricked me. After handing in a poem, I waited for his  44 . It didn’t come. Instead, one day as the students gathered together, he said to me, “Jim, I don’t think you wrote this.” I  45 him in disbelief. “Why”, I started, “of course I  46 !” “Well, then,” he said, “you’ve got to prove it by getting up and reciting it  47  memory.”

With knees shaking, I walked up. For a moment I stood  48 . Then I began, and kept going. I recited my poem all the way through!

Afterwards, Professor Crouch congratulated me, and  49  me to read other writers’ poems before the public.

    Before long, I discovered I did have a (n) 50  and found my fellow students actually looked forward to hearing me recite.

A. lasted            B. took            C. was                 D. wasted

A. so                 B. fairly           C. such                D. rather

A. uncertain          B. unlikely         C. unbelievable         D. unable

A. But                B. Besides         C. Then               D. However

A. even if             B. so that         C. as if                D. like

A. acting              B. teaching        C. liking              D. choosing

A. prevent             B. help           C. keep                D. stand

A. learn              B. knew          C. decided              D. proved

A. writing             B. reading         C. reciting              D. saving

A. difference          B. difficulty       C. promise                     D. friendship

A. question            B. idea           C. fact                 D. mind

A. said               B. meant          C. caused               D. prepared

A. answered back      B. showed up       C. turned away           D. stuck to

A. poem              B. praise          C. return                D. opinion

A. replied to          B. laughed at     C. pointed to             D. stared at

A. could            B. did           C. should                D. had

A. with              B. of             C. from                D. in

A. changeless        B. hopeless        C. helpless              D. breathless

A. enabled            B. persuaded     C. encouraged           D. supported

A. voice              B. sound          C. appearance           D. interest

I was brought up in the British, stiff upper lip style. Strong feelings aren’t something you display in public. So, you can imagine that I was unprepared for the outpouring of public grief(悲伤) at a Chinese funeral.

My editorial team leader died recently after a short illness. He was 31. The news was so unexpected that it left us all shocked and upset. A female colleague burst into tears and cried piteously at her desk. Somehow we got through the day's work. The next day was the funeral.

Our big boss stepped forward to deliver a eulogy(悼词) and was soon in tears. She carried on, in Chinese of course, but at the end said in English: "There will be no more deadlines for you in heaven." Next came a long-term colleague who also dissolved in tears but carried on with her speech despite being almost overcome by emotion. Then a close friend of the dead man paid tribute(哀悼), weeping openly as he spoke. Sorrow is spreading. Me and women were now sobbing uncontrollably. Finally, the man's mother, supported between two women, addressed her son in his coffin. At one point, the mother almost collapsed and had to be held up. We were invited to step forward to each lay a white rose on the casket. Our dead colleague looked as if he was taking a nap. At the end of the service I walked away from the funeral parlor stunned at the outpouring of emotion.

In the UK, families grieve privately and then try to hold it together and not break down at a funeral. Here in China it would seem that grieving is a public affair. It strikes me that it is more cathartic to cry your eyes out than try to keep it bottled up for fear of embarrassment, which is what many of us do in the West.

Afterwards, a Chinese colleague told me that the lamenting at the funeral had been restrained(克制) by Chinese standards. In some rural areas, she said, people used to be paid to mourn noisily. This struck me like something out of novel by Charles Dickens. But we have all seen on TV scenes of grief-stricken people in Gaza and the West Bank, in Afghanistan, Iraq and the relatives of victims of terrorist bombings around the world. Chinese grief is no different. I realized that it's the reserved British way of mourning that is out of step with the rest of the world.

It was our newspaper's production day. We were bussed back to the office to resume work. No more deadlines for our former colleague, but we had to pull together to put the newspaper to print. The boss invited the team to go out for dinner after work. We relaxed, smiled, joked. There was no mention of the funeral or our poor colleague. Enough sorrow had been shed already. We needed a break.

1.The underlined words “stiff upper lip style” in Paragraph 1 mean “________”.

A．cold-blooded      B．warm-hearted  C．light-hearted   D．self-controlled                 

2.At the funeral, ________.      

A. five individuals made speeches

B. the boss’s speech was best thought of

C. the writer was astonished by the scene

D. everyone was crying out loudly

3.According to the writer, people in the West ________.     

A. are not willing to be sad for the dead

B. cry their eyes out at the public funeral

C. prefer to control their sadness in public

D. have better way to express sadness

4.It is implied that ________.  

A. Chinese express their sadness quite unlike other peoples

B. the English might cry noisily for the dead in Dickens’ time

C. victims of terrorist bombings should be greatly honored

D. English funeral culture is more civilized than the others

5.This passage talks mainly about________.       

A. an editor’s death            B. bad funeral customs

C. cultural differences          D. western ways of grief               

A MENTORING(导师制) program is giving life changing opportunities to Banbury youth.

Young Inspirations was founded two years ago to provide mentoring sessions for students and unemployed young adults aged 11 to 21.

Alex Goldberg，the program's founder，said：“We set up Young Inspirations because we wanted to give young people experiences which will potentially be life changing and broaden their outlook.”

“We try to create work experience opportunities that will really make a difference to our youth.For example，we've secured internships(实习) with world?famous firms such as Honda.”

“At a time of funding cutbacks where schools are finding it more and more difficult to offer this kind of mentoring，it is extremely important that these opportunities are available both to help youth with their school work and grades and to give them opportunities which may help shape their futures.” Kieran Hepburn,14，is one of a group of Banbury youth who has benefited from the program so far.In October the Banbury School pupil was accompanied by Young Inspirations staff to Paris where he was an observer at the United Nations Educational，Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) International Youth Forum(论坛)．

The event was held for young people from around the world，to seek their views on how the future of youth and education should look.Kieran joined several hundred observers mostly in their 20s and was the only UK school pupil to attend the event.Kieran thinks the trip was a life changing experience.“Before we left I didn't quite know what to make of it but when we got there we didn't stop，it was amazing，” he said，“We went to three or four hours of debates each day and then did something cultural each afternoon.”

The main theme of the forum was how youth can drive change in political and public life.It dealt with issues(问题) such as drug abuse，violence and unemployment.

Kieran said：“It has really helped me to improve my confidence and social skills as well as my school grades and I was voted most improved pupil at school in August.”

The Young Inspirations mentoring sessions take place each Friday in Banbury.For details visit www.younginspirations.com.

1.The Young Inspirations mentoring program aims to? ______.

A．train staff for world?famous firms

B．offer job opportunities to young adults

C．provide youth with unique experiences

D．equip the unemployed with different skills

2.According to Alex Goldberg，it is difficult for schools to offer the mentoring due to ________.

A．the lack of support from firms

B．the cultural differences

C．the effect of unemployment

D．the shortage of money

3.We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．the visit to the United Kingdom was amazing

B．Kieran has made great progress in many aspects

C．the youth have found a way to solve their problems

D．the mentoring sessions are held every day except Friday

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Alex Goldberg，Founder of Young Inspirations

B．Young People Find a World of Opportunity

C．Kieran，Banbury School Pupil to Paris

D．Debates Help Youth with Their Grades

It was a Sunday and the heavy storm had lasted all night．The morning after the storm, though, was beautiful: blue skies, warm air and a calm, inviting sea touching the shore gently．

    My father realised it was a good day for fishing and invited my sister and me to go with him．I was only 14 and fishing had never been my thing, but I decided to go all the same．I’m so glad I did．

On the road to the harbour we could see the terrible destruction on the coast, but the harbour itself was in fairly good shape．After all, it was protected by the arms of a bay that had only one tiny channel to the sea．As we got on board, we noticed two big humps(脊背) in the distance．

On approaching them, we saw it was a mother whale with her baby．We couldn’t believe it —there aren’t any whales along the coast here．The storm must have driven them across the ocean into the bay, in which the still water was so badly polluted that nothing could survive．

The little baby whale — actually as big as our boat — was obviously stuck and could not move．The mother dived under the water and came up suddenly, making big whirlpools(漩涡) and waves．” She’s trying to help her baby, but on the wrong side,” my father said．At this point, my father moved our boat in a semicircle to the other side and, heading the boat towards the baby whale, pushed it gently．With our several gentle pushes the big hump turned over and disappeared under water．Then it swam up right beside its mum．They struggled in their desperate attempts to escape but missed the exit and started heading in the wrong direction．We hurried up to the whales and tried to lead them towards the bay channel．Slowly, they let us lead them, sometimes rising from the water right beside us to breathe — and to give us a trusting look with those huge eyes．Once they hit their first part of clean water flowing straight from the sea, the mum gave us a wave with her tail and off they swam into the distance．

In the excitement it had felt like only a few minutes, but we had been with those wonderful animals for almost an hour and a half．That was the simple and lasting beauty of the day, Nearly four decades later, I still look back fondly to that golden day at sea．

The author says “I’m so glad I did．” (in Para．2) because __________．

A．he witnessed the whole process of fishing

B．he enjoyed the beauty of the calm sea

C．he experienced the rescue of the whales       

D．he spent the weekend with his family

The harbour survived the storm owing to__________．

A．the shape of the harbour        B．the arms of the bay

C．the still water in the channel   D．the long coast line

The mother whale failed to help her baby because__________．

A．she had stayed in the polluted water for too long

B．the whirlpools she had made were not big enough

C．she had no other whales around to tutu to for help

D．the waves pushed her baby in the wrong direction

What is the theme of the story?

A．Saving lives brings people a sense of happiness．

B．Fishing provides excitement for children．

C．It’s necessary to live in harmony with animals．  

D．It’s vital to protect the environment．