.

I don’t like getting up too early unless I have to. When you’re filming, you’ve got make-up on, which doesn’t happen often. As I’m not filming at present I’ll get up at 8.30.

Work normally means Matt coming over to my house about 10 am. We’re writing at the moment. We’ll chat for a bit before going to my study. One of us will have an idea for a sketch (梗概), we’ll talk about the characters and when we feel we have enough we’ll start writing.

Matt and I met at the National Youth Theatre in 1990 and started doing shows together in ’95, at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. We know we’re onto something if we’ve made each other laugh, and that’s a really special moment. It’s not always like that, but we’re comfortable enough with each other that we can be honest and go. Some days you’re not in the mood to be funny—like writing when my dad was dying of cancer, or when Matt was separating from his partner.

We stop for lunch and sometimes go to Wagamama in Camden, but the last time we were followed by paparazzi (狗仔队), which gets you down—who wants to be pictured eating noodles?

When I’m not writing with Matt I work on other projects. My second children’s book comes out later in the year. It’s called Mr. Stink. The first one I dedicated to my three-year-old nephew, Eddie. Both books have been illustrated by Quentin Blake; it’s been a thrill to work with him—like 20 years ago reading a Roald Dahl book and looking at those drawings, then one day that person illustrates your work… magical.

At 5 I go swimming in Soho. My trainer makes me do horrible exercises, but I always feel better after.

Being in all day, I like to go out in the evening and look smart, but not like I’ve come out of the City. I’m a tall, broad guy and well-dressed.

For dinner I’ll meet friends. When you’re a single guy it’s great to have some good female friends. Or I might take my mum to the theatre, as I know she really appreciates it. I like watching TV comedy shows to see what everyone’s doing. When you see something impressive it makes you work harder. I also love Larkin’s poems: they don’t try to transcend (超越) the commonplace; they’re much more straightforward.

Poetry is great to dip into before going to bed, rather than falling asleep reading a novel and being confused over what you’ve read or not. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in seven years; unfortunately, I rely on pills. I’ve tried everything. If I could wish anything for myself, I’d wish I could sleep better.

67. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A. the author spends much time with his friends

B. the author and Matt are both famous in the district

C. the author doesn’t care much about what to wear

D. the author works at home and seldom goes out every day

68. Where does the passage most likely appear?

A. In a travel diary.                         B. In a news column.

C. In an online diary.                    D. In a research paper.

69. Why does the author read some poetry before going to bed?

A. Because poetry can often bring him some funny ideas.

B. Because poetry is much easier to understand than novels.

C. Because poetry is very abstract and reflects unusual things.

D. Because poetry can be of some help for him to kill time.

70. What might be the best title for the passage?

A. A day’s work with Matt                 B. A new life-style 

C. A life in the day                       D. A good way to write

 

Don’t try to persuade your boss; he won’t have the _______of employing me — a fresh student.

   A. intention   B. attention    C. sense    D. attraction

信息匹配题

A. Speak, speak, speak

Practise speaking as often as you can---even speaking to yourself is good practice. Try recording yourself whenever you can. Compare your pronunciation with the master version(版本), see how you can do better and have another go. If you do this several times, you will find that each version is better than the last.

B. Why not learn with someone else?

It helps if you can learn with someone else. If you can persuade a friend or family member to study with you, it will make you keep working. Agree times to meet and set goals for the week. And test each other regularly.

C . Don’t get a shock by a word you don’t know

Practise improvising（即兴的） ways of getting your meaning across when speaking spontaneously（本能地）, even if you don’t know the exact words or phrases. Think of things you might want to say whenever you have spare time. A basic example is the use of tenses. If you don’t know the past tense but want to talk about yesterday, use the verb in the present tense and use the word “yesterday”.

Use facial expressions, hand movements, anything to get your meaning across.

Language learning is also about intuition（直觉）.

Guesswork is an important strategy in learning a new language. When listening to recorded material, you aren’t expected to understand everything first time round. If you play the same piece several times, you will most probably understand something new each time. Learn to make maximum use of all the clues you can pick up. For example, what do the speakers sound like? happy, angry, calm etc.

E. Build up your vocabulary.

A wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning but don’t try to learn too much at once. It’s best to study frequently, for short periods of time. Take a maximum of six or seven items of vocabulary and learn them. Put them into sentences to fix them in your mind, then come back to them later. Much of the vocabulary in the course is presented by topic. And above all, have fun!

请阅读以下英语学习者在学习中碰到的困难，然后匹配该学习者应该采取上述五种做法（A、B、C、D、E）中的某一种。

(  ) 72. Jack Anderson. Jack’s vocabulary is very small. He is anxious to improve his English. Therefore, he wants to enlarge his vocabulary in a short time and tries his best to memorize new words as many as possible at a time.

(  ) 73. Margret Lillian. Margret Lillian’s pronunciation is poor. And she doesn’t know how to improve her pronunciation. She is very worried and doesn’t know what to do.

(  ) 74. Alice Fingerhut. Alice has difficulty in understanding the meaning of the English text. So she looks up the new words in the dictionary in order to understand everything.

(  ) 75. Lynne Nagata. Lynne can’t express herself clearly in English because she sometimes forgets some key words and doesn’t know the tenses exactly. What can she do?

 

Don’t try to _____ your boss; he won’t plan to employ me—a fresh student.

A． suggest	B． persuade
C． advise	D． expect

 

What is time? Is it a thing to be saved or spent or wasted, like money? Or is it something we have no control over, like the weather? Is it the same all over the world? That’s an easy question, you say. Wherever you go, a minute is 60 seconds, an hour is 60 minutes, a day is 24 hours, and so forth. Well, maybe. But in America, time is more than that. Americans see time as a valuable resource. Maybe that’s why they are fond of the expression, “Time is money.”

Because Americans believe time is a limited resource, they try to keep and manage it. People in the US often attend conferences or read books on time management. It seems they all want to organize their time better. Professionals carry around pocket planners(计划书) — some in electronic form — to keep track of appointments and deadlines. People do all they can to press more life out of their time.

To Americans, punctuality is a way of showing respect for other people’s time. Being more than 10 minutes late to an appointment usually calls for an apology, and maybe an explanation. People who are running late often call ahead to let others know of the delay. Of course, the less formal the situation, the less important it is to be exactly on time. At informal get-togethers, for example, people often arrive as much as 30 minutes past the appointed time. But they usually don’t try that at work.

American lifestyles show how much people respect the time of others. When people plan an event, they often set time days or weeks in advance. Once the time is fixed, it takes almost an emergency to change it. If people want to come to your house for a friendly visit, they will usually call first to make sure it is convenient. Only very close friends will just “drop by” unannounced. Also, people hesitate to call others late at night for fear they might be in bed. The time may vary, but most folks think twice about calling after 10:00 pm.

Even Americans would admit that no one can master time. Time, like money, slips all too easily through our finger. And time, like the weather, is very hard to predict. However, time is one of life’s most precious gifts.

The main idea of the passage is _______.

A. time is money                                       B. different attitude toward time in the world

C. how to save time                                   D. how Americans treat time

In the fourth paragraph, the writer mainly tells us that _________.

A. Americans respect others’ time in daily life

  B. Americans seldom call after 10:00

C. Americans inform before paying a visit to their friends               

D. when planning an event, Americans usually fix time ahead of time

The underlined phrase “think twice” (in Paragraph 4) probably means “_______ “.

A. think for a second time                   B. be careful

C. be afraid                         D. pay attention

It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A. Americans like time better than anything else     

B. generally speaking, Americans respect their time 

C. on the whole, Americans treasure their time        

D. Americans consider their time is difficult to master and predict