The books in David’s schoolbag felt like bricks as he ran down the street. What he wanted to do was to play basketball with Eric,  21  his mother told him he would have to return his sister’s books to the library first.

He had  22   set foot in a library and he wasn’t about to do so today. He would just  23  the books in the outside return box. But there was a  24  :it was locked.

He went into the building, only a few minutes  25  closing time. He put the books into the return box. And after a brief  26  in the toilet, he would be on his way to the playground to  27  Eric.

David stepped out of the toilet and stopped in  28  — the library lights were off. The place was  29 . The doors had been shut. They  30  be opened from the inside. He was trapped(被困) — in a library!

He tried to  31  a telephone call, but was unable to  32 . What’s worse, the pay phones were on the outside of the building.  33  the sun began to set, he searched for a light and found it.

 34  he could see. David wrote on a piece of paper: “  35  ! I’m TRAPPED inside!” and stuck it to the glass door.  36  , someone passing by would see it.

He was surprised to discover that this place was not so unpleasant,  37  . Rows and rows of shelves held books, videos and music. He saw a book about Michael Jordan and took it off the shelf. He settled into a chair and started to  38  .

He knew he had to  39  , but now, that didn’t seem to be such a  40  thing.

21. A. but                    B. because                   C. or                           D. since

22. A. ever                   B. nearly                     C. never               D. often

23. A. pass                   B. drop                               C. carry                D. take

24. A. problem            B. mistake                   C. case                 D. question

25. A. during               B. after                               C. over                 D. before

26. A. rest                    B. break                      C. walk                D. stop

27. A. visit                   B. meet                       C. catch                D. greet

28.A. delight                B. anger                      C. surprise                   D. eagerness

29. A. lonely                B. empty                     C. noisy                D. crowded

30. A. wouldn’t                   B. shouldn’t                 C. couldn’t                  D. needn’t

31. A. make                 B. fix                                 C. use                   D. pick

32. A. get on                B. get up                     C. get through               D. get in

33. A. If                             B. As                                  C. Though                   D. Until

34. A. On time                    B. Now and then                 C. By the way               D. At last

35. A. Come                B. Help                       C. Hello                      D. Sorry

36. A. Surely               B. Thankfully               C. Truly                      D. Gradually

37. A. at most              B. after all                   C. in short                   D. as usual

38. A. watch                B. play                        C. read                D. write

39. A. wait                   B. stand                       C. sleep               D. work

40. A. bad                    B. cool                        C. strange                    D. nice

When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

     “We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”

      I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for ‘holidays” is “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign(标牌) outside said ‘VACANCLES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

      We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ‘DIVERSION’ means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION’ on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole（洞）.

      English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris when someone offered me some more coffee, I said ‘Thank you’ in French. I meant that I would like some more.  However, to my surprise,  the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you’ in French means ‘No, thank you.’

1.My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.

A. learning English

B. finding places to stay in England

C. driving their car on English roads

D. going to England by car

2.I suggested that they stay at bed and breakfast houses because ______.

A. they would be able to practise their English

B. it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels

C. it would be convenient for them to have dinner

D. there would be no problem about finding accommodation there

3. “NO VACANCIES” in English means ______.

A. no free rooms          B. free rooms      C. not away on holiday    D. Holidays

4.If you see a road sign that says ‘Diversion’, you will ______.

A. fall into a hole

B. have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself

C. find that the road is blocked by crowds of people

D. have to take a different road

5.When someone offered me more coffee and I said ‘Thank you’ in French, I ______.

A didn’t really want any more coffee

B. wanted them to take the coffee pot away

C. really wanted some more coffee

D. wanted to express my politeness

 

Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy—five, he gave ?? 12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment (设备) for a children’s playground.

    As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy—five. Johnson had a sense of humour (幽默). He liked whisky (威士忌酒) and drank some each day. “I have an injection (注射) in my neck each evening.”he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.

    The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy—five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.

Johnson became a rich man through

   A. doing business.    B. making whisky.    C. cheating.    D. buying and selling land.

The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson

   A. had no children.                    B. was a strange man.

   C. was very fond of children.            D. wanted people to know how rich he was.

Many people wrote to Johnson to find out

   A. why  he  gave so much money to the school.  B. how to live longer.

   C. how to become wealthy.          D. in which part of the neck to have an injection.

The newspaperman

   A. should have reported what Johnson had told him.

   B. shouldn’t have asked Johnson what injection he had.

   C. was eager to live a long life.

   D. should have found out what Johnson really meant.

When I first saw the book Alice in Lace, I thought I was going to like it. And as it turned out, I love it! I love books about life and being a kid. And Alice in Lace is just that kind. It’s a humorous book about being thirteen and the problems kids might face. Alice and her friends get a strange assignment from their totally cool teacher, Mr. Everett. It was like playing the game of “Life,” but you had to act it out.

So Pamela is pregnant, Elizabeth buys a car and Alice gets married. Well, of course, Pamela wasn’t really pregnant, but she walked around with a pillow under her shirt to get people’s reactions. Elizabeth didn’t really buy a car, but she went to the car lot and made the sales guy think she was. The whole class got assignments like these! I would love to do something like that for school.

In the book Alice has a lot to think about. “Getting married is hard!” Alice says. She has to plan the ceremony, the honeymoon, find a place to live, pay for furniture and two months’ rent and food. Maybe she and her “husband” could work it out — if they were getting on fine!

Although this book was funny, it really made me think about how problems like these could really mess up your life. Take teenage pregnancy for example. How could you have a baby and stay in school? You couldn’t find a babysitter every day to stay with your kid. A child really consumes your life. I understand what the teacher was trying to do. He was trying to discourage the class from getting into these problems by giving them a glimpse of life. As someone about to become a teenager myself, I can say sometimes a story makes you think about what’s up ahead.

Overall, I would say this book is wonderful. My favorite part of the book is discovering that if I like it, there are seven other Alice books I can check out at my local library. I love this book, and I hope you will too.

1.We can infer from the passage that Pamela, Elizabeth and Alice _______.

A．turn out to be the author’s classmates

B．are characters in Alice in Lace

C．get along quite well

D．become dismissed from school

2.By saying “getting married is hard” in the paragraph 3, Alice means ______.

A．life isn’t easy as expected

B．it is hard to deal with her husband

C．she regrets getting married

D．it’s fun to get married

3.Why did Mr. Everett give his students such assignments?

A．To encourage them to enjoy a meaningful life.

B．To prevent them getting into those troubles at an early age.

C．To make them realize the hardship of life.

D．To teach them how to make a living.

4.The author writes the passage mainly to _____.

A．advise us to buy Alice in Lace

B．tell us how wonderful Mr. Everett’s idea is

C．share her inspiration from Alice in Lace

D．show off her reading ability

 

On Thursday afternoon Mrs. Clarke locked the door and went to the women’s    36    as usual. It was a pleasant way of passing time for an old woman who lived    37  .

When she came home she sensed    38   unusual. Had someone got in? The back door and the    39   were all locked and there was no sign of forced entry ( 进入). Had anything been     40  ? She went from room to room, checking, and found her camera and watch     41    .

The following Thursday she went out at her    42    time, but she didn’t go to the club.     43   , she took a short walk in a park nearby and came home,     44   herself in through the back door. She settled down to wait and see what would    45  .

It was 4 o’clock when the front doorbell rang. Mrs. Clarke was making tea at the time. The bell rang again, and    46   she heard her letter-box being pushed open.    47   the kettle（壶）of boiling water, she moved quietly towards the door. A piece of wire appeared through the letter-box, and then a    48   . The wire turned and caught around the knob (圆型旋包钮) on the door-lock. Mrs. Clarke raised the kettle and    49 _ the water over the hand.    50 __ was heard outside as the    51    fell to the floor and the hand was pulled back, which was    52   by the sound of running feet.

It wasn’t long    53  the police caught the thief. And Mrs. Clarke was greatly    54   at the club for her successful     55  .

1.                A．organization     B．party           C．movement D．club

 

2.                A．lonely          B．alone          C．away D．busily

 

3.                A．everything      B．nothing         C．something D．anything

 

4.                A．windows        B．rooms          C．doors    D．gates

 

5.                A．found          B．opened         C．taken D．broken

 

6.                A．losing          B．missing         C．leaving   D．disappearing

 

7.                A．same          B．spare          C．special   D．usual

 

8.                A．Therefore       B．However        C．Instead   D．Again

 

9.                A．pushing        B．letting          C．pulling   D．leading

 

10.               A．appear         B．follow          C．happen   D．continue

 

11.               A．the next moment B．for a while      C．in time    D．at once

 

12.               A．Putting down    B．Laying aside     C．Picking up D．Taking away

 

13.               A．knife          B．hand           C．letter D．key

 

14.               A．spread         B．dropped        C．poured    D．covered

 

15.               A．A sad voice      B．A sharp cry      C．A warning shout D．A strange noise

 

16.               A．key            B．kettle          C．door-lock  D．wire

 

17.               A．followed        B．caused         C．produced  D．ended

 

18.               A．before         B．since          C．until  D．when

 

19.               A．surprised       B．admired        C．inspired   D．supported

 

20.               A．self-satisfaction  B．self-protection   C．self-respect    D．self-service