If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice. There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills, you should first master the skills of reading and listening.

Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example, in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.

As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening. For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.

If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve quickly, and you can be a fluent English speaker one day.

1.According to the writer, which should you improve first among the four skills?

A．Reading and listening.	B．Reading and writing.
C．Writing and speaking.	D．Speaking and listening.

2. To improve your reading, when you read you should ______.

A．look up all the new words in the dictionary

B．think about what you are reading actively

C．spend more time studying grammars

D．copy as many words and sentences as possible

3.The underlined phrase “come across” in Paragraph 2 can probably be replaced by “______”.

A．meet

B．discover

C．hear

D．look for

4.The passage is mainly about how to ______.

A．choose suitable listening materials

B．deal with new words in reading

C．improve your reading ability as quickly as possible

D．become fluent in speaking and writing English

 

（BBC）The "father of the personal computer" who kick-started the careers of Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen has died at the age of 68. Dr Henry Edward Roberts was the inventor of the Altair 8800, a machine that led to the home computer age.

Gates and Allen contacted Dr Roberts after seeing the machine on the front cover of a magazine and offered to write software for it. The program was known as Altair-Basic, the foundation of Microsoft's business. "Ed was willing to take a chance on us - two young guys interested in computers , and we have always been thankful to him," the Microsoft founders said in a statement.

 Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told technology website CNET that Dr Roberts had taken " a critically important step that led to everything we have today".

Dr Roberts was the founder of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), originally set up to sell electronics parts to model rocket hobbyists. The company went on to sell electronic calculator parts, but was soon overshadowed by bigger firms.

In the mid-1970's, with the firm struggling with debt, Dr Roberts began to develop a computer kit(配套零件) for hobbyists. The result was the Altair 8800. The $395 kit (around ??1,000 today) was featured on the cover of Popular Electronics in 1975, resulting in a flood of orders.

Amongst those interested in the machine were Paul Allen and Bill Gates. The pair contacted Dr Roberts, offering to write software that would help people program the machine. The pair finally moved to Albuquerque - the home of MITS - where they founded Micro-Soft, to develop their software.

Dr Roberts sold his company in 1977. He died in hospital on 1 April after a long period of pneumonia．(肺炎)

Why did Dr Roberts probably decide to sell his company?

A. Because he was in heavy debt in the mid-1980's .

B. Because he wanted to take a chance on Gates and Allen.

C. Because he wanted to develop a computer kit for hobbyists.

D. Because he had difficulty competing with big companies. 

What do we know about MITS?

A. It was set up by Steve Wozniak.

B. It sold electronics parts to big firms.

C. It is located in Albuquerque.

D. It is a technology website.

We can learn that Popular Electronics is likely to be  ____.

A. a newspaper   B. a magazine   C. a Website   D. an organization

What is the best title of this passage?

A. The story of the Altair 8800

B. The founder of MITS

C. Father of the personal computer died

D. The story of Dr Roberts

They say money doesn’t grow on trees.  But it certainly appears to do so on the mysterious coin-studded  trunks around the UK’s woodland.  The strange phenomenon of old trees with coins embedded(镶嵌) all over their bark has been spotted on trails from the Peak District to the Scottish Highlands.

The coins are usually knocked into the trunks of the trees which were cut down using stones by passers-by, who hope it will bring them good fortune.

These fascinating spots often have coins from centuries ago buried deep in their bark. The tradition of making offerings to spirits of trees dates back hundreds of years, but this combination of the man-made and the natural is far more rare. 

It used to be believed that spirits lived in trees, and they were often decorated with sweets and gifts—as is still done today at Christmas. The act reminds us of tossing money into ponds for good luck, or the trend for couples to attach “love padlocks” to bridges and fences to symbolize lasting romance.

There are seven tree trunks with coins pushed into them in the unique village of Portmeirion, in Wales.

Meurig Jones, a manager at the tourist destination, told the BBC: “We had no idea why it was being done when we first noticed the tree trunk was being filled with coins. ” He also said: “I did some detective work and discovered that trees were sometimes used as ‘wishing trees’. In Britain it dates back to the 1700s—there is one tree in Scotland somewhere which apparently has a coin stuck into it. ”

He said that a sick person could press a coin into a tree and his illness would go away. “If someone then takes the coin out though, it’s said they then become ill. We haven’t announced it at all, it’s just happened, ”he added. “It’s quite amazing really. ”

56. What is the best title of the passage?

A. How to get good luck in Britain?

B. A fantastic way to recover from disease

C. Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?

D. Can the tree really bring you good luck?

57. The passers-by knocked coins into the trunks of the trees_______.

A. to get more money back

B. to ensure the trees are theirs

C. to attract the spirits of the trees

D. to pray for good luck

58. Which method of blessing is not mentioned in the passage?

A. decorating fences with sweets

B. pressing a coin into a tree

C. throwing money into ponds

D. attaching “love padlocks”

59. When did pressing coins into tree trunks begin?

A. about two hundred years ago

B. about three hundred years ago

C. about four hundred years ago

D. about five hundred years ago

60. From this passage we can learn_______.

A. seeing trees with coins in them is quite common in the UK

B. Jones understood why there were coins on trees from the start

C. Jones believes the wishing trees can bring people’s illness away

D. if someone takes the coin out,  he can get good luck soon

When most people turn 21, they spend too much time partying and having fun. But when Adele turned 21, she did something completely different.

After going through a tough breakup(分手), the British singer turned her pain into glory and recorded one of the most moving albums of the year.

The album, 21, which was released in January, has already hit the charts in 14 countries, according to the Billboard magazine.

It also noted that Adele made history as the first artist since the Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums in the charts at the same time (Adele’s first album, 19, was released in 2008. Each album is named for her age when she wrote it).

Now, after touring around the world for almost a year, the DVD of her live concert, released on November 29, is Adele’s latest work.

Having topped the pre-order list of Amazon. com for over a month already, this one seems set to stay on top for a while.

Born in north London, Adele sang her way up honestly:  In 2006, she was signed by England’s XL Recordings on the strength of (基于)a three-song demo(样本唱片) a friend of hers had posted on MySpace;within two years she had won the BRIT Awards ‘Critics’ Choice prize and been tipped by the BBC as the “Sound of 2008”.

In 2009 she got the best new artist Grammy Award, and went on a world tour in support of the album 19 with a sold-out show in Los Angeles.

According to Adele herself, much of the inspiration of her music comes from one single breakup.

That’s probably what has made the singer’s success-that emotional certitude(确信), according to Dickins.

“The key to great singers is believing every single word they sing, ” he said. “And I think you believe every word that comes out of Adele’s mouth. You can feel her life force through her voice. ”

1.When she wrote album 19, she is at the age of______.

A．21

B．18

C．20

D．19

2.How many awards did Adele get?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Four.

3.The underlined word “released” can be best replaced by ______.

A．recorded	B．came out
C．sold	D．written

4. In Adele’s opinion, where does her inspiration of music mainly come from?

A．Emotional certitude.	B．One single breakup.
C．A three-song demo.	D．A world tour.

 

Is it true that cats have nine lives? One 4-year-old American cat named Sugar definitely seems to have more than one. Sugar fell from the 19th floor of her owner’s home in Boston last month and was only hurt a little on her chest.
“This story isn’t much of a surprise,” said Jake Socha, a scientist at Virginia Tech University, US, in an interview with the BBC. “There have been lots of records of these cats surviving.”
Back in 1987, scientists studied 132 cats. All of them had been brought to a vet’s clinic in New York after falling from tall buildings. Around 90 percent of these cats were alive after their fall and only 37 percent had been seriously injured.
“Being able to survive falls is a critical thing for animals that live in trees, and cats are one of them,” said Socha.
Cats have developed special body structures to survive accidental falls. Their legs are muscular. This can protect their bones from breaking, Professor Andrew Biewener from Harvard University told the BBC. Cats can also spread out their legs like a parachute to reduce their falling speed, he said.
The strange part, according to scientists, is that cats have a better chance of survival if they fall from higher than seven stories. This is because cats have a good sense of which way is down. They can twist their bodies as they fall to make sure they land on their feet. A higher fall means more time for the cat to change its body position.
However, you should not throw your cat out of the window to see how this works. Most pet cats are overweight nowadays. They are not fit enough to change their position in midair, warned Steve Dale, an American cat behavior scientist.
“This cat (Sugar) was lucky,” Dale said. In fact, most cats would suffer serious lung damage, a broken leg or a broken jaw or teeth damage, he said.
【小题1】What can we learn from Paragraph 3?

A．Cats really do have nine lives.

B．Many cats can survive falls.

C．Cats are the softest animals in the world.

D．More than half of the cats that fall from high places end up badly injured.

【小题2】What does the underlined word “critical” mean in the context?

A．Important.

B．Easy.

C．Challenging.

D．Serious.

【小题3】Why can cats survive falls according to the article?
a. They have a hidden parachute in their bodies.
b. Their legs have developed in a way that protects their bones from breaking.
c. They can land on their feet.
d. They can twist their bodies to reduce the speed at which they are falling.

A．a, b

B．b, c

C．c, d

D．b, d

【小题4】Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．A pet cat that falls out of a tall building is not really at risk.

B．Sugar was lucky that she was only injured in the leg.

C．Cats are confused as to which way is down when they are in midair.

D．A cat that falls from the fourth story of a building is more likely to die than one that falls from the 10th story.