While I was in my 4th month of pregnancy (妊娠期) with my second child, we were preparing for a trip to Louisiana, where Marshall’s family live, to celebrate Jane’s 2nd birthday. Two days before we were to leave, we got the shocking news that I was going to lose the baby. Not knowing when this would happen, we decided to continue with our trip.

Since Marshall’s family lives on a 600-acre cattle farm, you often find that you have a lot of time to yourself to think when you are there. That is precisely what I did not want to do at this time. I told Marshall that I needed to get a good book to get lost in while I was there. I told him I heard the Harry Potter books were good, so he went out and got the first one for me.

During that trip, I totally got lost in the book, which was of great help during a time when I needed a distraction to forget about the sadness. In the book, I noticed the name “Seamus”. I vaguely remembered it was pronounced “Shamus” and I liked the sound of that. I mentioned it to Marshall and he liked it too. Toward the end of the trip, I had just 5 chapters left and I knew I was about to finish the first book, which I was pretty excited about.

Soon after we put Jane down to bed, I had started labor (分娩), so I was unable to read. The labor lasted 5 and 1/2 hours, but Marshall stayed there with me, sitting beside me and reading aloud the last 5 chapters of Harry Potter. I can never fully explain how much that helped me through the experience. And ever since then, Marshall and I both have been fans of the Harry Potter books. We remember how they helped us get through that time of our lives.

We were sad to have lost the baby, but the name Seamus started our journey toward adoption. And we gave this name to our adopted son. Though our Seamus doesn’t have a drop of Irish blood in him, the name fits him perfectly.

1.Why did the writer want a good book during the trip?

  A. Because the trip to Louisiana would take a long time.

B. Because she didn’t want to think of losing her baby.

  C. Because she had nothing else to do except reading.

  D. Because a good book could help her enjoy her trip.

2. According to the story, we can know that the Harry Potter books _________________.

  A. made the family’s trip more exciting          B. include five books all together

  C. have someone called Seamus in them         D. can help people deal with their problems

3. The writer named her son Seamus because ___________________.

A. she wanted to keep her trip in memory           B. she loved this name very much

C. her son doesn’t have Irish blood                D. it is a perfect name for a boy

4.Which of the following is TRUE about the couple?

  A. They planned their trip after getting the shocking news.

  B. They thought the cattle farm was too large to do anything on.

  C. They felt excited when they almost finished the trip.

  D. They liked reading Harry Porter very much after the trip.

5. Which is the best title for the passage?

  A. Funny Stories Of My Family            B. Seamus And Harry Potter

  C. How We Got To Louisiana              D. How My Son Got His Name

Our tolerating ability is indeed way beyond our imagination. But not until the very critical moment will we     21    our potential tolerating ability.
There was a woman in the countryside who got married at the age of 18 and had to escape with her two daughters and a son wherever she could at the age of 26 due to the Japanese army’s invasion. Many people in the village at that time could not     22   the suffering of being a fugitive（亡命者） and wanted to commit suicide. After she knew about it, she would come to those    23     ,saying, “Don’t do that     24     thing. There are no such setbacks(挫折) that we could not overcome!”
Finally she insisted until the day when all the Japanese armies were kicked out of China.   25   , her son died of disease without sufficient     26      and nutrition in those days of hardships. Her husband, after knowing the death of his son, lay in bed for two days without eating and drinking anything. She teared to her husband and said, “We have a tough destiny, but however tough our lives will be, we should also     27   . Though our son has passed away, we can have another. ”
After giving birth to the second    28    , her husband died of edema（水肿病）, which almost    29  her away. But eventually, she    30     and held the three young children in her arms, saying, “My sweet hearts, don’t feel scared. You still have me, your dear mum!”
It took her pain efforts to     31    her children up and the life of her family was getting better and better. Two daughters were married and so was his son finally. She said to everyone she met, “Look! What I said is     32    right. There are no such setbacks that we could not overcome! My life is so happy now!” She was      33    gradually and could not do the farm work anymore. So she stayed at home and did some sewing work.
Nevertheless, the Heaven seemed to show no affection to her who had undergone a   34   life. She got her leg broken      35     when she was nursing her grandson. Due to her old age that posed a great risk to her operation, she did not receive operation and had to lie in bed all day long. Her children all cried heavily, while she merely said, “Why do you cry? I am still living.”
     36     she could not rise from bed, she did not complain about anything and anybody. Instead, she sat on the bed and did some sewing work. She had learnt scarves-weaving, crafts-making, etc. All her neighbors spoke      37     of her skills and came to learn from her.
She lived until 86. Before she went to Heaven, she said to her children, “You all should live to your best. There are no such setbacks that we could not overcome!”
We will only get to realize our own iron will and strong tolerating ability after getting   38    heavily. Therefore, no matter what you are suffering from now, do not merely complain about the   39     of our destiny and maintain low-spirited all the time. There are no such setbacks that we could not overcome. Only those who have no confidence and courage to overcome setbacks will be    40     at last!

Language is always changing. In a society where life continues year after year with few changes, the language does not change, either. The earliest known languages had difficult grammar but a small, limited vocabulary. Over the century, the grammar changed, and the vocabulary grew. For example, the English and Spanish people who came to America during the sixteenth century gave names to all new plants and animals they found. In this way, hundreds of new words were introduced into English and Spanish vocabularies. Today life is changing very fast, and language is changing fast too.
There are several major language families in the world. Some scientists say there are nine main families, but other scientists divide them differently. The languages in each family are connected, and scientists think that they came from the same parent language About 3 percent of the people in the world speak languages that are not in these major families.
【小题1】 The early language had ______.

Though our city has a good public transport system, _______ private car is becoming _________ popular means of transport.

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
The National Outline for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010 - 20) was released over the weekend. Here are some of the highlights:
Four – percent effort
The government says spending on education will be 4 percent of GDP by 2012. globally, average spending on education is about 4.5% of GDP. China spend 3,33% in 2008. according to Hu Angang, of Tsinghua University’s Center for China Studies, even if China reaches that goal, it will only rank about 100 th out of 188 countries.
Administrative rank
Administrative rankings for school leaders are to be phased out to tackle the bureaucracy (官僚机构) problem that limits educational development, according to Cheng Fangping, of the national Institute for Educational Research. Areas like teaching programs, scientific research, and technological development will be more independent.
Vocational Education
The system will be free of charge. According to Wu Yan, of Beijing Institute of Educational Sciences, this will be key to developing China’s production capacity and will improve poor people’s lives dramatically.
Entering college
Universities could eventually have the freedom to choose some of their own high school applicants. Normally, students are accepted based on the uniform national exam scores. Also, students who agree to go to a remote area could be admitted to university under special circumstances. The most likely change could come on the college entrance English test, which might be modeled on the IELTS or TOEFL. Students will be able to take it several times and pick their best score.
56．Which of the following is true in the future according to the passage?
A．Applicants could take the IELTS or TOEFL instead of the college entrance English test.
B．Colleges will be given the right to choose all of their own applicants.
C．Vocational education will be party free to make people’s lives better.
D．Applicants could sit for the college entrance English test more than once.
57．Which of the following words is closest in meaning to “uniform” in the last paragraph?
A．formal      B．official     C．same D．united
58．We can learn from the passage even though our country spends 4% of GDP on education in 2012, ________.
A．there will still be 188 countries ahead of China in this aspect
B．China will certainly overtake the global average spending on education
C．there might be nearly 100 countries ahead of China in this aspect
D．China will be the 100 th country to spend over the global average on education
59．From the third paragraph, we can infer that________.
A．school leaders will have more freedom to manage the school
B．schools will have more limits from the government
C．School administrative rankings are to be strengthened to solve the bureaucracy problem
D．schools and research centers will be fully independent from the government