As I sat beside the window of our classroom that afternoon, my heart sank further with each passing car. This was a day I’d looked forward to for weeks: Miss Pace’s fourth-grade, end-of-the-year party.
I had happily volunteered my mother when Miss Pace looked for cookie volunteers. Mom’s chocolate chips were well-known, and I knew they’d be a hit with my classmates. But two o’clock passed, and there was no sign of her. Most of the other mothers had already come and gone, dropping off their sweet offerings.
The three o’clock bell soon took me away from my thoughts and I took my book bag from my desk.
I decided I would slam the front door, and refuse to return her hug. But when I arrived, she wasn’t at home.
I was lying face-down on my bed upstairs when I heard her come through the front door.
“Robbie,” she called out a bit urgently. “Where are you?”
I could then hear her rushing anxiously from room to room, wondering where I could be. I remained silent.
Coming through the door, she said: “I’m so sorry, honey,” she said. “I just forgot. I got busy and forgot.”
Then my mother did something completely unexpected. She began to laugh! How could she laugh at a time like this? I rolled over and faced her, ready to let her see my rage (愤怒).
But my mother wasn’t laughing at all. She was crying. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I let you down. I let my little boy down.”
I was moved by her tears.
I tried to remember her kind words from times past when I’d skinned knees or cut myself, times when she knew just the right thing to say.
“It’s okay, Mom. We didn’t even need those cookies. There was plenty of stuff to eat. Don’t cry. It’s all right. Really.”
We didn’t say another word. We just held each other. When we came to the point where I would usually pull away, I decided that, this time, I could hold on, perhaps, just a little bit longer.
【小题1】. The author was pretty down because ______.

A．the mother didn’t get to the party because of the traffic jam

B．the mother was sorry for her absence and laughed at herself

C．the author was a caring and thoughtful boy

D．the author was overcome with anger

The way we do things round here

Some years ago, I was hired by an American bank. I received a letter from the head of the Personnel Department that started, “Dear John, I am quite pleased that you have decided to join us. ”That “quite” saddened me. I thought he was saying “we’ re kind of pleased you decided to join　us although I wish we had hired someone else.” Then I discovered that in American English “quite” sometimes means “very”, while in British English it means “fairly”.

So the first lesson about working in other countries is to learn the language and by that I don' t

just mean the words people speak. It is body language, dress, manners, ideas and so on. The way people do things highlights many of the differences we see between cultures（文化）．

Some of these differences may be only on the surface—dress, food and hours of work—while others may be deeper and take longer to deal with. Mostly, it is just a question of getting used to the differences and accepting them, like the climate（气候），while getting on with business.

Some of the differences may be an improvement. People are more polite; the service is better; you ask for something to be done and it happens without having to ask again. However, other differences can be troubling, like punctuality（准时）．If you invite people to a party at 7 o’ clock

your guests will consider it polite to turn up exactly on time in Germany, five minutes early in the

American Midwest, an hour early in Japan, 15 minutes afterwards in the UK, up to an hour afterwards in Italy and some time in the evening in Greece. I prefer not to use the word “late” because there is nothing wrong with the times people arrive. It is simply the accepted thing to do in their own country.

1.The author was unhappy as mentioned in Paragraph 1 because he thought______．

    A. the American bank didn’ t think much of him

    B. the American bank might hire another person

    C. it’ s difficult to get used to American culture

    D. it’ s easy to misunderstand Americans

2.The word “highlights” in Paragraph 2 probably means_____.

    A. encourages                  B. helps to narrow

    C. increases                    D. draws attention to

3.According to the author, what should we do with most cultural differences?

    A. Ask the native people for help.

    B. Understand and accept them.

    C. Do things in our own way.

    D. Do in-depth research.

4.When invited to a party the people who are usually punctual are______.

    A. Italians 　　　B. Germans　　　 C. Greeks 　　　D. the British

       The tea gardens in Sri Lanka are actually large estates(种植园). The best tea usually comes from plants grown on high grounds, the cool hilltops with rows and rows of tea plants. The plants are about one metre apart. The plant is often pruned so that it remains only 60 to 90 centimetres high. Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender shoots, or young leaves. It is from these shoots that the best tea is got.

       Practically all the tea pickers are women. The estates prefer to employ women pickers because they are more careful. Their thin fingers can easily remove the twin leaves and new shoots from the plant, which are the parts used for processing(加工) tea. The pickers carry large baskets into which they throw their pickings. A skilled worker can harvest between 9 to 14 kilogrammes of tea leaves a day. Usually new shoots can be picked from the plants about every ten or fifteen days.

       Processing tea shoots into the familiar dry tea leaves requires great care and skill .There are various methods of processing depending on the type of tea required .For black tea ,the young green leaves are first spread out o shelves to dry. This process removes much of its water and the leaves become soft. After this ,the leaves are passed through heavy rollers .This operation will press the leaves for juices which give the tea both its colour and taste .Then the leaves are spread out on floors and left to ferment （发酵）under wet conditions. Fermentation develops the rich taste of black tea .The fermented leaves are then dried with a hot-air blower until they become rolled-up black leaves .The final step is to sort and grade them before the black tea is ready for sale to countries all over the world.

68.In the first paragraph ,the word “pruning” means       .

  A.regular cutting of the plants    B.frequent watering

  C.regular use of chemicals         D.growing the plants high in the mountain

69.One of the reasons why women are employed to do the picking is that        .

  A.they work harder than men do in the picking

  B.they can throw their pickings more easily into the baskets

  C.their fingers fit them better for the job.

  D.they can more easily find the twin leaves.

70.How many processing steps are mentioned in the last paragraph?

  A.Three.    B.Four.    C.Five.    D.Six.

71.What is the writer’s purpose in writing the passage?

  A.To introduce various methods of tea processing.

  B.To persuade readers to buy tea from Sri Lanka.

  C.To tell a story that had happened in the tea gardens.

  D.To inform readers of tea growing ,picking and processing.

I was very disappointed not to be able to go to the jazz concert last Friday. The announcement in the paper said that you could buy tickets at the theater box office in Richland Hills any day between 10:00 and 4:00. Since I work from 9 o’clock to 5:30, the only time I could go to the theater was during my 45-minute lunch break. Unfortunately, the theater is on the other side of the town, and the bus service between my office and Richland Hills is not very good. But if you are lucky, you can make the round trip in 45 minutes. Last Monday, I stood at the bus stop for fifteen minutes waiting for a bus. By the time I saw one come around the corner, there was not enough time left to make the trip—so I gave up and went back to the office. The same thing happened on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday. On Thursday, my luck changed. I got on a bus right away and arrived at the theatre in exactly twenty minutes. When I got there, however, I found a long line of people at the box office. I heard one man say he had been waiting in line for over an hour. Realizing I would not have enough time to wait in line, I caught the next bus and headed back across the town. By Friday I realized my only hope was to make the trip by taxi. It was expensive, but I felt it would be worth hearing the concert. The trip by taxi only took 10 minutes, but it felt like an hour to me. When I got to the theatre, I was relieved to see that nobody was waiting in line. The reason, I quickly discovered, was that they had already sold all the tickets.

1. 1.

   The writer is probably ______.

   1. A.
      a worker
   2. B.
      a college teacher
   3. C.
      a boss of a company
   4. D.
      a secretary
2. 2.

   He learned ______ that there would be a concert last Friday.

   1. A.
      from his friends
   2. B.
      from one of his colleagues
   3. C.
      over the radio
   4. D.
      from the newspaper
3. 3.

   He could go and buy the ticket ______.

   1. A.
      any day before work hours
   2. B.
      both before and after work hours
   3. C.
      only during lunch time
   4. D.
      on Saturday and Sunday
4. 4.

   The word “relieved” in the last two sentences may best be replaced by “______”.

   1. A.
      surprised
   2. B.
      pleased
   3. C.
      puzzled
   4. D.
      sorry
5. 5.

      The story is about ______.

   1. A.
      a good concert
   2. B.
      someone enjoying a good concert
   3. C.
      someone trying to buy concert tickets for his friends
   4. D.
      someone failing to buy the concert ticket

College libraries are designed primarily for research and study．To explain its use, let us choose a research topic and follow the step-by-step procedure of looking up the material for the paper．

         Suppose your assignment is to write a paper on a novel called “The Sun Also Rises” by American writer Hemingway．The first step is to go to the main catalog．Many small drawers on the large wooden cabinets are lined up in alphabetical（字母的） order．Each of the drawers contains hundreds of alphabetical ordered cards．These cards are printed references to all material available in the library．Title cards are cataloged （为…编目录 ） by the first word of the book title, leaving out the articles like “a”, “an” and “the”．And then you get the cards for the books you need．On the upper left corner of each card is the call number．This is the numerical code that shows where the book is located in the library．The library has open and closed stacks．If your book is on the open stacks, you can go to the open-stack room, and according to the call number find it out by yourself．There are only about 30,000 books on open stacks, while most of the 800,000 books in our library are kept in closed stacks, which are accessible only to teachers and graduate students．

        For undergraduates like you, borrowing books from the closed stacks have to be done with the help of our librarian．In that case, you must fill out a call slip（纸条） for the book, showing the call number, author and title．You can get call slips on tables near the catalog cabinets．You show your call slip together with your library card to a librarian at the information desk．He or she will help you find the book out in the closed stacks．

1.What is the main purpose of this text?

         A．To present readers a brief introduction to a college library．

         B．To guide readers how to find books needed in a college library．

         C．To tell readers how to fill out a call slip in a college library．

         D．To show readers where to find books in a college library．

2.What letter you should look for on the title card for the book “The Old Man and the Sea” by the Hemingway?

         A．The letter “t”．         B．The letter “h”．       C．The letter “s”．         D．The letter “o”．

3.How are books arranged and shelved in the library?

         A．By call numbers．     B．By call slips of authors’ names．

         C．In alphabetical order．     D．By the first word of book title．

4.Suppose you are an undergraduate and you want to borrow a book from the closed stacks, which is the correct order to do it?

a．go to the main catalog                b．show your call slip and library card

c．find out the call number     d．fill out a call slip

e．get the cards for the books

         A．a-b-e-d-c             B．a-e-c-d-b

         C．b-a-c-d-e             D．b-c-a-e-d