第一部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）

第一节 （共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

A

A few days ago，I went to school with lots of books，hoping to get a locker (锁柜)．Suddenly，it started raining heavily. I hurried to pay for my locker，but I was disappointed when they informed me they only accepted cash. I was $7.00 short，which meant I had to carry the books back home. It would be an exhausting (令人筋疲力尽的) two-hour journey back home with all those books.

An elderly gentleman nearby noticed my problem. He asked how much cash I needed. When I told him I was $7 short，he quickly took out the money from his wallet. “You don’t have to pay me back，”he said. I was speechless；I didn’t know whether to take the money or come back with the books the next day. A young student who was working there noticed my hesitation. “He’s really nice，” said the student. “I was starving this morning and he bought breakfast for me. He always helps people in different ways.”

The next day，I went to him and thanked him for trusting me and lending me the money. He said he forgot about it and didn’t expect I would give it back. “I’m very happy，”he said，“not because I’m getting my money back，but because this is the right way to go—whatever you get from this world，give it back as much as you possibly can. Spread kindness around the world with the smallest things you can do.”

Later，I found out he wasn’t involved with any charity organizations. He has been performing these types of acts for years. Earlier，someone had done something incredibly kind for him and he has been spreading the kindness ever since. He taught me a very important lesson in life—we come to this world with nothing and we will leave with nothing. Whatever we own，it will become somebody else’s and whatever we leave，it will become somebody else’s.

1.When the old gentleman offered the money，the writer was________.

A．touched B．hesitant C．amazed D．embarrassed

2.From Paragraph 3 we learn that________.

A．the gentleman worked in the school

B．the gentleman was kind but forgetful

C．the gentleman refused to take back the money

D．the gentleman thought it right to give back to society

3.Why had the gentleman been doing acts of kindness?

A．He wanted to join the charity organizations.

B．He managed a lot of other people’s money.

C．He had received help from others before.

D．He thought money was of little importance.

B

I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. ???? I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows (誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

So here's what I wanted to tell you today: get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion (提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love，and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(休闲) but work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

It is so easy to waste our lives，our days，our hours，and our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of living. I learned to live many years ago. Something really，really bad happened to me，something that changed my life. If I had my choice，it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what，today，seems to be the hardest lesson of all.

I learned to love the journey，not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and tried to give some of it back because I believed in it，completely and totally. And I tried to do that，in part，by telling others what I had learned.

By telling them this：read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness，because if you do，you will live with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.

4.How did the author form her view of life?

A．Through social experience. B．By learning from her friends.

C．Through an unfortunate experience. D. From her children and husband.

C

A tent can be one of the more costly items on your camping equipment shopping list. It is definitely something that you need to consider carefully.

By seeing a tent for real you will be able to get a better impression of its size and construction in the traditional shop. However，the downside is that，unless you are experienced，you may miss out some of the details that the manufacturer’s promotional material makes clear. Cheap tents often look similar to the quality models they are mimicking(模仿)，but you can be sure that they use inferior(次的) materials and probably have lower design standards.

Shop staff are often campers themselves. That means they usually can give lots of advice. If a shop assistant agrees with your own conclusions，that will be great；if they try to change your decision with a clear and reasonable argument，then that will be worth considering；if they just try to bamboozle(欺骗)，or even bully，you then walk away.

The Internet is a wonderful tool，and so long as you know how to make the most of search engines and put in a little effort，you really have the perfect answer waiting to be found. That answer will be different for every camper as each of us has different needs. Don’t be surprised to see your favorite criticized somewhere，but if you see too much criticism，then you had better start thinking again. No problem. You won’t have spent anything yet，so think of it positively as a large expense saved.

Probably the best approach，if you have the time，is to research tents online and make a short list. Then try to inspect those tents at nearby shops. Then you can make a final decision on where to buy your chosen model based purely on total cost.

8.The underlined word “downside” in Paragraph 2 means “________”．

A．disadvantage B．instruction C．argument D．principle

9.It can be concluded from the third paragraph that________.

A．shop assistants usually enjoy going camping

B．shop assistants usually have practical advice

C．you should consider your idea repeatedly

D．it is impolite for you to trouble shop assistants

10.You can make use of the Internet to________.

A．meet your different needs B．find the answer for every camper

C．help you out of trouble D．find your favorite tent

11.Which of the following would be the main idea of this passage?

A．It is good to buy your tent in the traditional shop.

B．You’d better buy a tent with the help of the Internet.

C．Better buy a tent combining seeing tents for real in shops and researching them online.

D．Going camping is really beneficial to your health.

D

A huge cloud of dust rose and an overpass disappeared. This was the scene in Zhuzhou，Hunan Province on May 17.Nine people were killed and 16 injured.

Things were similar last year in the Sichuan earthquake. Thousands of people were buried in the ruins and lost their lives. What if we could have warned them?

People are always racking their brains to find a way of preventing buildings’ collapse. Better materials and technology help，but they are not a solution.

Just like humans，a building has its own life cycle from “birth” to “death”．If we know when a building is going to collapse，we can repair it in advance or get out of it before it falls.

Now，scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a material that turns red before it breaks. The invention could be used in things like climbing ropes or bridge supports.

The research was led by Nancy Sottos，a professor at the university’s Beckman Institute，and Douglas Davis，a graduate research assistant.

The secret behind the color-changing material is a type of molecule (分子)．A molecule is a group of atoms held together by chemical bonds. Imagine you and your friends standing in a circle，holding hands. Each person stands for one atom，your hands represent the bonds，and the entire circle represents a molecule. If one person lets go of his or her hands，the molecule changes color.

The research team put the molecule into a soft material. When the researchers stretched the material，it turned bright red for a few seconds before it broke into two pieces. When they repeatedly stretched and relaxed the material，without breaking it，it only turned a little red.

The major problem is that light can get rid of the red color. When the team shone bright light on the molecule，the broken bond was fixed，and the color disappeared.

If the bright light keeps the red color from appearing，the material’s warning system will be useless. Scientists still have a lot of work to do before the color-changing molecules can be used outside the lab.

12.What does the passage mainly introduce?

A．The collapse of an overpass in Zhuzhou，Hunan Province.

B．The Sichuan earthquake

C．A material that turns red before it breaks.

D．A way of preventing building from collapsing.

13.The underlined words “racking their brains” in the third paragraph mean ________.

A．suffering a lot B．collecting beyond imagination

C．losing a lot D．thinking very hard

第二节（共5小题，每小题2分，满分10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答案。其中两项为多余选项。

My mother is a diligent and kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard. ___16 __Both my brother and I love her dearly as she loves us.

My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until late in the afternoon. ___17 _She treats them with patience and teaches them well. For her excellent quality and very good teaching results, she has been elected as a model teacher several times.

___18___Every day, when she comes back home from work, she sets about doing housework, sweeping the living room and bedrooms or cleaning the furniture, and putting everything in good order. She seems to be busy all the time. As she has been ver