January l:  It has happened.  I got a call today saying a little girl in Russia is now my little girl. There are a lot of papers to prepare, and we have to travel to Russia to bring her home,

but now it is certain. I think I'll tell some close friends. Jason is so excited.  I haven't told Steven yet. How can I tell a seven-year-old that he has a sister who is already five years old?

         January 10: Today I received a picture of Katerina. The picture is small and not very clear,  but I look at it over and over again.  I don't know anything else about her.  She has lived in a home for children without parents for most of her life.  I wonder how I will talk to her.  I don't speak Russian, and she doesn't speak English.

         February l: Today I showed Katerina’s picture to Steven* He is very happy and wants to tell all his friends about his new sister.  I want to buy some new clothes for Katerina, but I don't know her size.  I haven' t received any information from the adoption organization,  and I'm feeling a little worried.

    February 16: Finally! Today we received good news! All the papers are ready and tomorrow we will go to Russia to bring Katerina home with us．

    February 18: Today I met my daughter for the first time．She is very small, very thin, and very shy． On the way home in the airplane, she slept most of the time．When she woke up, she cried． I am very worried and hope that I can be a good mother to Katerina．

    February 19: Steven met his sister this morning． Although Katerina was quiet at first, soon she and Steven began to talk in a mix of Russian, English, and hand movements． Steven and his sister get along well together． In fact, he is able to help her talk with Jason and me． I am worried about how Katerina will be in school． Next week she will start school． How will she understand her teacher?

         March 21: Katerina looks much better now． She is heavier, her hair looks good, and her skin is clear． She loves to watch television with her brother, and she has learned to roller-skate． She is doing well in school, and her English gets better every day． Although she sometimes looks sad, and sometimes cries, most of the time she is happy． I think she is slowly my life without her．

1.Who is Katerina?

A．Steven's elder sister．                    B．An adopted girl．

C．Jason's close friend．                     D．The writer's niece．

2.When back at home, what is the writer most worried about?

A．How Steven can get along well with Katerina．

B．How Katerina can communicate with Jason and her．

C．Whether Katerina will adapt herself to the school life．

D．Whether she can be a good mother to Katerina．

3.From the passage we know that in her new family Katerina ______．

A．gets very fat                              B．becomes depressed

C．remains frightened                        D．is well treated

4.Where is the passage most probably from?

A．A diary．                         B．An advertisement

C．An essay．             D．A speech

 

--- Have you thought of the topic for the composition?

　　　　---Not yet, I _______ it very carefully, but I haven’t decided.

　　A. will consider 　　　　　B. have been considering

　　C. had considered　　　　　D. was considering

26. I haven’t read ______ of his books, but judging from the one I have read I think he’s a very promising writer.

A. any                         B. none                 C. both                         D. Either

---You haven't lost the concert ticket, have you?

--______. I know it is not easy to get another one at the moment, but nowhere can I find it．

A．No, I haven't      B．I don't hope so

C．Yes, I'm afraid so                   D．I hope not

 

Andrew Ritchie, inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle, once said that the perfect portable bike would be “like a magic carpet…You could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag”. Then he paused: “But you’ll always be limited by the size of the wheels. And so far no one has invented a folding wheel.”

It was a rare — indeed unique — occasion when I was able to put Ritchie right. A 19th-century inventor, William Henry James Grout, did in fact design a folding wheel. His bike, predictably named the Grout Portable, had a frame that split into two and a larger wheel that could be separated into four pieces. All the bits fitted into Grout’s Wonderful Bag, a leather case.

Grout’s aim: to solve the problems of carrying a bike on a train. Now doesn’t that sound familiar? Grout intended to find a way of making a bike small enough for train travel: his bike was a huge beast. And importantly, the design of early bicycles gave him an advantage: in Grout’s day, tyres were solid, which made the business of splitting a wheel into four separate parts relatively simple. You couldn’t do the same with a wheel fitted with a one-piece inflated （充气的） tyre.

So, in a 21st-century context, is the idea of the folding wheel dead? It is not. A British design engineer, Duncan Fitzsimons, has developed a wheel that can be squashed into something like a slender ellipse （椭圆）. Throughout, the tyre remains inflated.

Will the young Fitzsimons’s folding wheel make it into production? I haven’t the foggiest idea. But his inventiveness shows two things. First, people have been saying for more than a century that bike design has reached its limit, except for gradual advances. It’s as silly a concept now as it was 100 years ago: there’s plenty still to go for. Second, it is in the field of folding bikes that we are seeing the most interesting inventions. You can buy a folding bike for less than ??1,000 that can be knocked down so small that it can be carried on a plane — minus wheels, of course — as hand baggage.

Folding wheels would make all manner of things possible. Have we yet got the magic carpet of Andrew Ritchie’s imagination? No. But it’s progress.

We can infer from Paragraph 1 that the Brompton folding bike        .

A. was portable

B. had a folding wheel

C. could be put in a pocket

D. looked like a magic carpet

We can learn from the text that the wheels of the Grout Portable        .

A. were difficult to separate

B. could be split into 6 pieces

C. were fitted with solid tyres

D. were hard to carry on a train

We can learn from the text that Fitzsimons’s invention        .

A. kept the tyre as a whole piece

B. was made into production soon

C. left little room for improvement

D. changed our views on bag design

Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A. Three folding bike inventors

B. The making of a folding bike

C. Progress in folding bike design

D. Ways of separating a bike wheel