Dear Judy,
I’m glad to receive your email telling me your arrival time
and I’m really e        to see you! I’m sorry that I will not     1____________
be able to meet you at the ________(机场) in person. I will be     2____________
         (参加) a biology exam at that time. Don’t be worried.  3 ____________
I will a       for a taxi to pick you up and send you to my      4_____________
house, _________you can have a good rest before I come back. I      5_____________
guess you may feel t        after such a long journey. In the    6____________
evening, I’ll show you ________ the city square and have a look   7____________
at one of the most beautiful ___________(塔) in the world. The    8____________
next day, we’ll _________ a visit to the newly-built museum, in    9____________
which you can see a fine c           of art treasures on show.  10___________
Yours
Jorge

 Public schools in New York，America’s biggest city, commonly have numbers for names．But this is unusual．In the United States，the process of naming a school often involves parents and the community

as well as elected school leaders.

Researchers say school names can show civic (市民的) values and also shape them． For example，naming a school after a historic person becomes a way to teach students about that person’s  importance in history．

A new study examines the naming of American public schools．The study is from the Manhattan Institute，an organization that does public policy research．The study shows that fewer and fewer schools are being named after people．Instead。more schools are being named after the local areas or natural features like hills．trees or animals．The researchers say these changes raise questions about the civic duty of public education．

The looked at seven states with 20% of all public school students in the country. They found the similar result in every state: new school are less likely to be named after people. This is true especially with presidents. For example, in Arizona, public school in the past 20 years were almost fifty times more likely to be named after such things as landforms or plants .

School officials say they try to choose names that will not offend anyone. For example, a few years ago the city of New Orleans banned the naming of any school after a person who owned slaves. Other school system have rules against naming new schools after any person, living or dead .

The researchers say naming a school after a person can lead it important debates about democratic values. They call for more research to identify the causes and effects of the changes in school names.

The causes may include changes in American culture as well as in the political control of school systems. One area worth exploring , they say, is the link between trends in school names and weak results for public schools on measures of civic education.

1.More schools are being named after the following EXCEPT ________ .

2.What does “they” in paragraph 7 refer to ?

3. If the passage appears in a newspaper, which column will it be ?

4. What’s the best title for the passage ?

完形填空(共20小题,每小题1.5分, 满分30分)

I’ll never forget May 12, 2008, we were having classes at Beichuan Middle School , Sichuan Province, when a huge  36  hit the area.

At about 2:28 p.m, our  37  , Mr.Wang, was teaching us singing on the fourth floor on the teaching building.  38   we felt the building shaking violently. It was an earthquake! Our building starting to  39  . It was too late to rush out to the  40  . We were told to hide under the desks.  41  later, the whole building fell down. We were  42  in ruins. We couldn’t move at all. No one could really imagine at that split second, how much pain we had  43 or how desperate(绝望的) we felt as we waited to be  44 . I heard Mr. Wang calling our names again and again… .

Hours later, some people came to rescue and  45 of us were saved.

Later, I  46 this huge earthquake scaled 8.0 magnitude. It hit several provinces, including Sichuan, Gansu and Shanxi. So far it has  47 more than 80,000 and injured 360,000. My hometown ----Beichuan was  48  the worst-hit areas. Our school , which was  49  filled with vigor(活力) and laughter, was a dead valley.

Words after such a  50 could appear nothing but empty and pointless. So many people’s lives were taken away, so much  51  was done and the whole city was  52  . Beichuan has become a history.

Now , some of my classmates and I were  53  to study in a middle school in Jiangsu Province. I still  54  dreaming and still strive for a better future: to make our homes beautiful yet  55  .

May victims rest in peace. May survivors live to be stronger.

American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19. 2003. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.

Looking thinner and darker, 30 year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames（泰晤士河）and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process (过程)doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.

Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention.

In 1999, he was buried in a coffin (棺材) for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice. Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar(柱子) in the center of New York for 35 hours before jumping into a pile of boxes.

“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said. “They don’t realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation.”

But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.

It is _    __ for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.

A. pleasant      B. delicious       C. dangerous        D. important

Having spent such a long time in the glass box, he suffered the following EXCEPT that _   ___.

A. he had become blind             B. he had serious back pains

C. he lost his sense of taste      D. he was in weak health

Which of the following can best describe David Blaine?

A. Serious         B. Adventurous          C. Mad          D. Crazy

Which of the following is NOT true of David Blaine?

A. Blaine immediately went to hospital after he was taken out of his box.

B. Blaine was born and brought up in England.

C. In Blaine’s opinion, people can create a wonder.

D. Blaine didn’t have any food for 44 days.            

American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19, 2003. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.
Looking thinner and darker, 30-year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.
Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention. In 1999, he was buried in a coffin (棺材) for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice. Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar (柱子) in the center of New York for 35 hours before jumping into a pile of boxes.
“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said. “They don’t realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation.”
But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.
【小题1】It is         for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.