Thirteen, for me, was a challenging year. My parents divorced and I moved to a new town with my father, far from my old family and friends. I was terribly lonely and would cry myself to sleep each night. To ease my sadness, my father purchased an old horse for me at a local auction.(拍卖) I named him Cowboy.

Cowboy was without a doubt the ugliest horse in the world. But I didn’t care. I loved him beyond all reason. I joined a riding club and suffered rude comments and mean snickers about Cowboy’s looks. I never let on about how I felt, but deep inside, my heart was broken. The other members rode beautiful, registered horses.

When Cowboy and I entered the events where the horse is judged on appearance, we were quickly shown the gate. No amount of preparation and love would turn Cowboy into a beauty. My only chance to compete would be in the speed events. I chose the jumping race.

One girl named Becky rode a big brown horse in the race events. She always won the blue ribbons.  Needless to say, she didn’t feel threatened when I competed against her at the next show. She didn’t need to. I came in next to last.

The stinging memory of Becky’s smirks(得意的笑) made me determined to beat her. For the whole next month I woke up early every day and rode Cowboy five miles to the arena (赛马场). We practiced running and jumping for hours in the hot sun and then I would walk Cowboy home totally exhausted. All of our hard work didn’t make me feel confident by the time the show came. I sat at the gate and sweated it out while I watched Becky and her horse charge through the course and finish in first place.

My turn finally came. I put on my hat, rubbed Cowboy’s neck and entered the arena. At the signal, we dashed toward the first fence, jumped it without trouble and raced on to the next one. Cowboy then flew over the second, third and fourth fences like a bird and I turned him toward the finish line. As we crossed the line the crowd was shocked into silence. Cowboy and I had beaten Becky and her fancy horse by two seconds!

I gained much more than a blue ribbon that day. At thirteen, I realized that no matter what the odds, I’d always come out a winner if I wanted something badly enough to work for it.

1. The underlined expression "shown the gate" (paragraph 3) most probably means ______.

A. told how to enter the arena

B. shown how to make the horse beautiful

C. removed from the competition early

D. told to enter the timed-speed events

2. When the final race finished, nobody cheered because________.

A. the audience didn’t like Cowboy      B. people envied the writer

C. the win was unexpected        D. the writer bad run out of time

3. Why was the writer not confident of victory?

A. He was an inexperienced rider.

B. He had not practiced enough.

C. He believed he was unpopular with the crowd.

D. He thought his horse wasn’t as good as the others.

4. What did the writer learn from his experience?

A. Life can sometimes be unfair.

B. Anything is possible if one tries hard enough.

C. A positive attitude will bring success.

D. One should not make judgments based on appearance.

In the Great Depression, the American government couldn’t find good solutions _____ the unemployment problem

I spent five hours_____________ the book__________ I paid 10 dollars.

With five hungry children seated round the table, the food disappeared_____________.

He didn’t _____ to the news.

To keep the town clean, the truck ____ garbage is prevented ____ entering the town.

I didn’t realize putting on a play _________ so much work.

书面表达

请根据下面的英语小诗，展开适当的想象，并结合你的实际，写一篇短文标题为：My Great Father 的短文。

You are my loved dad

Loving and kind

Who always knows

Everything on my mind

You are my best friend

Caring and relied

Family by my side

注意：

1不得照抄短诗原文。

2必须结合短诗的内容，结合自己实际，适当展开。

3必须突出短诗主题，结构完整，语意连贯。

4短文不能写成诗歌形式。

5词数：100---120左右

第二卷

注意：将答案写在答题卡上。写在本试卷上无效

第三部分   写作（共两节，满分35分）

短文改错（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的一下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

      2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

Our class have had a discussing recently on whether it is necessary to start learning English from childhood. Some for it. As little boys and girls have had a very good memory, they can learn a lot of English words by heart very easy. This will help their future English learning. While others don’t agree. They think children have to learning Chinese pinyin at school. If they study Chinese pinyin and English at same time, it will be very easy for them to mix it up. This will do a lot of harm to their Chinese learning and their future English learning. For short, we have not arrived at some agreement yet.

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选项。选项中有两项多余选项。

There is an English saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.”51   Now, however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found that laughter really can improve people’s health.

Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their heart, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. 52  It increases blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing; it also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.

53  In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programmes. The group that tolerated (忍受)the pain for the longest time was the group which listened to a funny program. 54 

In this way55   they help to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really fell like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.

A. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemicals in the brain which diminish both stress and pain.

B. Until recently, few people took the saying seriously.

C. Laughter and physical exercise have similar effects on the human body.

D. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise.

E. As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics.

F. Laughter could produce a kind of chemical.

G. Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effect of pain on the body.