How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time? Far too many．
This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal(排演)and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families, always making ourselves believe that this style of life is only a temporary(暂时的)state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly given a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughedat by the English: “Have a nice day.” They speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, making us remember, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day．
How often do we say to ourselves “I’ll take up horse-riding(or golf, or sailing)as soon as I get a greater job.” But only to do none of those things when we do get the higher position．
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well-paid respectable job at Daily Telegraph to go and work for a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was surprised by his decision: Why was he in this completely abnormal mental(精神) state? How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small area in the countryside? I wanted to know.
Now when I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continuous pressure. He lived in all unattractive London suburb(郊区)and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains to and back from his work．
1. The first paragraph of the passage tells us that ．
A. we always try to find some time to write a book
B. we always make plans but seldom complete them
C. we always enjoy many of life’s best moments
D. we always do what we really want to do
2. The underlined phrase “turn his back on” (Paragraph 6) most probably means ．
A. leave for B. return to C. rely on D. give up
3.The man who worked at Daily Telegraph left this job because he was ．
A. under too much pressure
B. in an abnormal mental state
C. not well-paid
D. not respected
4.What is probably the best title for the passage?
A. Provide Homes for Our Family
B. Take Up Horse-Riding
C. Value This Very Day
D. Stay Alive
With the development of science and technology, new inventions, especially new electronic products, have made people’s lives easy and convenient. But as the saying puts: A coin has two sides.
One day, I was walking in the park with a friend and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and…I became invisible, absent from the conversation.
The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communications technology is a tragedy to the closeness of human interaction. With email and instant messaging over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine.
As almost every contact we can imagine between human beings gets automated, the alienation(疏远) index goes up. You can't even call a person to get the phone number of another person any more. Directory assistance is almost always fully automated.
Pumping petrol at the station? Why say good morning to the attendant when you can swipe(刷)your credit card at the pump and save yourself the bother of human contact?
Making a deposit at the bank? Why talk to a teller who might live in the neighborhood when you can just insert your card into ATM?
Pretty soon you won’t have the burden of making eye contact at the grocery shop. Some supermarket chains are using a self-scanner so you can check yourself out, avoiding those check-out people who look at you and ask how you are doing.
I am not against modern technology. I own a cell phone, an ATM card, a voice mail system, and an email account. Giving them up isn't wise…they're a great help to us. It's some of their possible consequences that make me feel uneasy.
More and more, I find myself hiding behind e-mail to do a job meant for conversation. Or being relieved that voice mail picked up a call because I didn't really have time to talk. The communications industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier.
So I've put myself on technology restriction: no instant messaging, with people who live near me，no cell phoning in the presence of friends, no letting the voice mail pick up when I'm at home.
1. Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
A. The Advance（进步） of Communications Technology
B. The Consequences（结果） of Modern Technology
C. The Process of Communications Revolution
D. The Automation（自动化） of Modern Communications
2. Paragraphs 5 to 7 are listed as examples, which show that the use of modern communications is ___________.
A. encouraging B. disappointing
C. satisfying D. embarrassing
3. The passage implies（暗示） that _______________.
A. modern technology is bridging the people
B. modern technology is separating the people
C. modern technology is developing too rapidly
D. modern technology is interrupting our lives
4. What does the writer think to do with the modern technology?
A. We may use them no matter what others are doing.
B. We can throw them away and return to the ancient.
C. We can be far away from them forever.
D. We can use them less and communicate with the people around us.
Tom was a clever boy, but his parents were poor, so he had to work in his spare time and during his holidays to pay for his education. In spite of this, he managed to get to the university, but it was so expensive to study there that during the holiday he found it necessary to get two jobs at the same time so as to make enough money to pay for his studies.
One summer he managed to get a job in a butcher’s shop(肉店)during the day-time, and another in a hospital at night. In the shop, he learnt to cut meat quite nicely, so the butcher often left him to do all the serving while he went to the back room to do the accounts(账目). In the hospital, on the other hand, he was, of course, allowed to do the simplest jobs, like helping to lift people and to carry them from one part of the hospital to another. Both at the butcher’s shop and at the hospital, Tom had to wear white clothes.
One evening at the hospital, Tom had to carry a woman from her bed to the place where she was to have an operation. The woman was already feeling frightened at the thought of the operation before he came to get her, but when she saw Tom, that finished her.
“No! No!” she cried．“Not my butcher! I won’t be operated on!” and fainted away(昏厥).
1. Tom made enough money by ________.
A. doing two jobs
B. working in a butcher’s shop
C. cutting meat well
D. studying in the university
2. Tom was a student, but at the same time he was__________.
A. a butcher and a doctor B. a manager and a doctor
C. an assistant D. a manager
3. The woman patient recognized Tom because ____________.
A. he was wearing white clothes
B. he was going to operate on her
C. he was now working in the hospital
D. he had sold meat to her
4.The underlined sentence “when she saw Tom, that finished her” means that the sight of Tom _________.
A. she felt better and better
B. took all her strength and courage away
C. broke her heart
D. made her decide to have an operation
This is a true story that happened in Japan. In order to repair the house, a Japanese tore open the walls. Japanese houses normally have an empty space between the wooden walls. When pulling down the walls, he found that there was a lizard(蜥蜴) staying there because a nail(钉子) from outside was hammered into one of its feet. He saw this, feeling pity and curious. When he checked the nail, he found it was nailed 10 years ago when the house was first built.
What happened? The lizard had survived in such a position for 10 years! It had been in a dark wall partition(夹层) for 10 years without moving! Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 10 years without moving a single step—since its foot was nailed! So he stopped his work and observed the lizard: What had it been doing? What and how had it been eating? Later, he didn't know from where another lizard appeared, with food in its mouth. Ah! He was astonished and touched deeply. The free lizard had been feeding it for the past 10 years.
Such love, a beautiful love! Such love happened with this tiny creature… What can love do? It can do wonders! Just think about it: one lizard had been feeding the other for 10 long years, without giving up hope on its partner. If a small creature like a lizard can love like this, just imagine how we can love if we try.
1. How did the Japanese feel when seeing the lizard there?
A. Frightened B. Enjoyable
C. Confused D. Usual
2. Why did the Japanese stop his work?
A. To watch how long the lizard can still live here.
B. To take out the nail and set the lizard free.
C. To have a rest by watching the lizard.
D. To find out why the lizard had survived there for 10 years.
3.What can we learn from the free lizard?
A. It teaches us never to give up our loved ones.
B. It teaches us to give more help to our loved ones.
C. It tells us to take pity on the stuck lizard.
D. It encourages us to live even longer.
假如你是李华，你的英国朋友Jack一周前给你发电子邮件，询问你寒假里的打算，但你因准备期末考试未能及时回复。请根据以下要点给他回封邮件：
1、 未及时回信的原因；
2、 你假期的打算（如做兼职、旅行、做志愿者等）；
3、 希望有时间来中国玩。
注意：
1、字数：120左右；
2、可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jack,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Yours truly,
短文改错
下面短文中有10处语言错误。请在有错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在该漏字符号下写上该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（ \ ）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该横线下写上修改后的词。
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。
Once upon a time there was a boy who fond of reading. However, he was very poor to buy any books. That was the reason that he had to borrow books from a rich man who had a lot of books. The
boy knew clearly that he has to finish reading the books he had borrowed and return it to the owner as
soon as possible. A rich man, who was ready to lend any of his book to the boy, read few of his own
books. With time going on, the boy read a lot but finally became a famous writer in his time. Though
the rich man had such many books, he remained a man with little knowledge because of he seldom
read his books.
