A

Are you a neat person or a messy（杂乱的）person? Is your desk neat or messy? Bill Brown is interested in studying people’s desks, or “work spaces”, as he calls them. A person’s work space tells you about how he or she organizes work.

Brown says both neat and messy people consider two things in organizing their work space: finding and reminding. Finding means being able to get messages and papers at the time you need them. Reminding means telling you to do things at a certain（某个）time. Brown has noticed that people put things in different places by looking at how important they are and when they will be needed.

Someone asked Brown if it is better to be neat or messy. He said, “Messy people have more problems finding things, but neat people have to spend time keeping their work space neat.”

Brown uses these ideas about workspaces to help him work out how computers should be built. When people use computers, he says, they also have these things in mind: finding and reminding. (184 words)

1. What does Bill Brown do?

A. He studies space B. He plans computers.

C. He studies people’s desk. D. He helps neat and messy people.

2. What does Brown say about neat and messy people?

A. It takes time to be neat. B. Messy people are careful about time.

C. It is better to be neat than messy. D. Being messy is better than being neat.

3. What does “reminding” mean?

A. Planning things in mind B. Helping one to remember

C. Keeping things in mind D. Making one think

4. Brown studies people’s desks in order to _______.

A. make messy people neat

B. tell the differences between neat and messy people

C. find out how people organize work

D. help people organize their work

B

We walked in so quietly that the nurse at the desk didn’t even lift her eyes from the book. Mum pointed at a big chair by the door and I knew she wanted me to sit down. While I watched mouth open in surprise, Mum took off her hat and coat and gave them to me to hold. She walked quietly to the small room by the lift and took out a wet mop（拖把）. She pushed the mop past the desk and as the nurse looked up, Mum nodded and said, “Very dirty floors.” “Yes, I’m glad they’ve finally decided to clean them,” the nurse answered. She looked at Mum strangely and said, “But aren’ t you working late?”

Mum just pushed harder, each swipe (拖一下) of the mop taking her farther and farther down the hall. I watched until she was out of sight and the nurse had turned back to writing in the big book. After a long time Mum came back. Her eyes were shining.

She quickly put the mop back and took my hand. As we turned to go out of the door, Mum bowed politely to the nurse and said, “Thank you.”

Outside, Mum told me “Grandma is fine. No fever.”

“You saw her, Mum?”

“Of course. I told her about the hospital rules, and she will not expect us until tomorrow. Dad will stop worrying as well. It’s a fine hospital. But such floors! A mop is not good. You need a brush.” (256 words)

5. When she took a mop from the small room what Mum really wanted to do was ______.

A. to clean the floor B. to please the nurse

C. to see a patient D. to surprise the story-teller

6. When the nurse talked to Mum she thought Mum was a ______.

A. nurse B. visitor C. patient D. cleaner

7. After reading the story what can we infer about the hospital? ______

A. It is a children’s hospital.

B. It has strict rules about visiting hours.

C. The conditions there aren’t very good.

D. The nurses and doctors there don’t work hard.

8. Which of the following words best describes Mum? ______.

A. Strange B. Warm-hearted C. Clever D. Hardworking

C

Two traveling angels (天使) stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the guest room. Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied: “Things aren’t always what they seem.”

The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor but very hospitable (好客的) farmer. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning, the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their only income, lay dead in the field.

The younger angel was very angry and asked the older angel, “How could this happen?” “Why didn’t you watch out for the cow? The first man had everything, yet you watched over his house,” she accuse（指责）. “The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you did not help.”

“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. “When we stayed in the basement, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so greedy and unwilling to share his good fortune, I asked God if I could seal（封口）the wall so he couldn’t find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmer’s bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I asked God if the angel could take the cow instead. Things aren’t always what they seem.” (308 words)

9. Why did the older angel repair the hole for the rich family?

A. Because she didn’t like the greedy owner.

B. Because she wanted to save the gold for the poor.

C. Because the basement was too cold to stay in.

D. Because she believed that one should always be ready to offer help.

10. In paragraph two, the pair refers to _____________.

A. the angels B. the rich couple C. the guests D. the poor couple

11. The younger angel was very angry because _____________.

A. the older angel killed the farmer’s cow

B. the angel of death took the cow away

C. the wealthy man gave them a bad place to live in

D. the older angel treated the two families unfairly

12. The story tries to tell the reader that _________________.

A. angels are always ready to help the poor

B. sometimes things are not what they seem

C. angels are always ready to help the rich

D. the young should always learn from the old

D

You wake up in the morning. The day is beautiful and the plans for the day are what you have been looking forward to for a long time. Then the telephone rings, you say hello, and the drama starts. The person at the other end has a depressing（令人沮丧的）tone in his voice as he starts to tell you how terrible his morning is and that there is nothing to look forward to. Are you still in a wonderful mood? Impossible!

Communicating with negative people can wash out your happiness. It may not change what you think, but communicating long enough with them will make you feel depressed for a moment or a long time.

Life brings ups and downs, but some people are stuck in the wrong idea that life has no happiness to offer. They only feel glad when they make others feel bad. No wonder they can hardly win others’ pity or respect.

When you communicate with positive people, your spirit stays happy and therefore more positive things are attracted. When the dagger（匕首）of a negative person is put in you, you have the heavy feeling that all in all, brings you down.

Sometimes we have no choice but to communicate with negative people. This could be a co-worker, or a relative. In this case, say what needs to be said as little as possible. Sometimes it feels good to let out your anger back to the negative person, but what this does is to lower you to the same negative level and they won’t feel ashamed of themselves about that.

Negativity（消极性）often affects happiness without even being realized. The negative words of another at the start of the day can cling to（附着）you throughout the rest of your day, which makes you feel bad and steals your happiness. Life is too short to feel negative. Stay positive and avoid negativity as much as possible. (331 words)

第二节 （共5小题，每小题1.5分，满分7.5分）

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

It’s hard when a best friend isn’t around — maybe because he or she moved to a different school or a different class. 16_____ You want to have new friends, but how do you make them? Maybe it seems like everybody else already has his or her friends. 17____

Start by looking around your classroom— think about which kids you’d like to play with at break. Look for chances to say hi to them, smile, and be friendly. 18_____ Invite someone to play with you or say “Do you want to sit here?” in the lunchroom. When you’re at break, walk over to kids you want to play with, act friendly, and say “Hi, can I play, too?” or just join in. If you have trouble doing this or if you’re feeling shy, ask your teacher to help you make new friends. Teachers are usually pretty good at matching up friends. 19_____ Be kind, be friendly, share, say nice things, offer to help — and pretty soon, you’ll have one, or two, or even more new friends. 20______ But when you see each other, you can share something you didn’t have before he or she left: You can introduce him or her to your new friends!

A. What’s right for me?

B. But remember, there’s always room for more friends.

C. You may feel lonely at break or lunchtime.

D. The best way to make friends is to be a friend.

E. Offer to share something or offer greetings.

F. Make a choice in your life.

G. You might still miss that special best friend.

第二部分： 英语知识运用（共两节，满分45分）

第一节 完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

阅读下面的短文，从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

I was working as a consultant （顾问） in a beer company, helping the president and senior vice-presidents with something important. It was a big 21 . At the same time, my mother was in the 22 stages of cancer.

I worked during the day and 23 40 miles home to be with her every night. It was 24 and stressful, but it was what I wanted to do. My promise was to continue to do excellent consulting during the day, 25 my evenings were very hard. I didn’t want to 26 the president with