About 30 years ago, I left Cuba for the United States with my son. After getting settled finally in Brunswick, New Jersey, I enrolled(注册) my son in kindergarten. Several weeks later, my son’s teacher asked me to meet him at his office.
In the teacher’s office, and exchange of greetings was followed by his questions: “Is your son mentally retarded(弱智的)？Does he suffer from any kind of mental disability?”
Was he talking about my wonderful Scola? NO, no, it can’t be. What a helpless, lonely moment! I told him that Scola was a quiet, sweet little boy, instead. I asked him why he was asking me all these questions.
My son could not follow the teacher’s directions, he told me, and thus, Scola was disrupting the class. Didn’t he know my son did not speak English yet?
He was angry; “Why hasn’t your son been taught to speak English? Don’t you speak English at home?”
No, I didn’t speak English at home, I replied. I was sure my son would learn English in a couple of months, and I didn't want him to forget his nativ e language. Well, wrong answer! What kind of person would not speak in English to her son at home and at all time? “Are you one of those people who come to this country to save dollars and send them back to their country, never wanting to be a part of this society?”
Needless to say, I tried to tell him I was not one of “those people.” Then he told me the meeting was over, and I left.
As I had expected, my son learned to speak English fluently before the school year was over. He went on to graduate from college and got a job, earning close to six figures. He travels widely and leads a well-adjusted, contented life. And he has benefited from being bilingual(双语的)。
Speaking more than one language allows people to communicate with others; it teaches people about other cultures and other places—something very basic and obviously lacking in the “educator” I met in New Jersey.
1.The teacher asked the author to his office__________
A. to discuss Scola’s in-class performance
B. to get Scola enrolled in kindergarten
C. to find a language partner for Scola
D. to work out a study plan for Scola
2.What does the underlined word “disrupting” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Breaking B. Following
C. Attending D. Disturbing
3.The author’s attitude towards being bilingual may best be described as__________.
A. critical B. casual
C. positive D. passive
4.This text is likely to be selected from a book of _________.
A. medicine B. education
C. geography D. history
Home to me means a sense of familiarity and nostalgia(怀旧). It's fun to come home. It looks the same. It smells the same. You'll realize what's changed is you. Home is where we ran remember pain, live, and some other experiences; We parted here; My parents met here; I won three championships here.
If I close my eyes, I can still have a clear picture in mind of my first home. I walk in the door and see a brown sofa surrounding a low glass-top wooden table. To the right of the living room is my first bedroom. It's empty, but it's where my earliest memories are.
There is the dining room table where I celebrated birthdays, and where I cried on Halloween-when I didn't want to wear the skirt my mother made for me. I always liked standing on that table because it made me feel tall and strong. If I sit at this table, I can see my favorite room in the house, my parents' room. It is simple: a brown wooden dresser lines the right side of the wall next to a television and a couple of photos of my grandparents on each side. Their bed is my safe zone. I can jump on it anytime - waking up my parents if I am scared or if I have an important announcement that cannot wait until the morning.
I'm lucky because I know my first home still exists. It exists in my mind and heart, on a physical property(住宅) on West 64th street on the western edge of Los Angeles. It is proof I lived, I grew and I learned.
Sometimes when I feel lost, I lie down and shut my eyes, and I go home. I know it's where I'll find my family, my dogs, and my belongings. I purposely leave the window open at night because I know I'll be blamed by Mom. But I don't mind, because I want to hear her say my name, which reminds me I'm home.
1.Why does the author call her parents' bed her "safe zone"(Paragraph 3)?
A. It is her favorite place to play.
B. Her needs can be satisfied there.
C. Her grandparents' photos are lined on each side.
D. Her parents always play together with her there.
2.What can be learned from the passage?
A. The old furniture is still in the author's fist bedroom.
B. The author can still visit her first physical mom in Los Angeles.
C. The author's favorite room in her first home is the dining room.
D. Many people of the author's age can still find their first physical homes.
3.Sometimes when she feels lost, the author will _______.
A. Open the window at night
B. lie down in bed to have a dream
C. try to bring back a sense of home
D. go to Los Angeles to visit her mom
4.What is the author's purpose of writing this passage?
A. To express how much she is attached to her home.
B. To declare how much she loves her first house.
C. To describe the state of her family.
D. To look back on her childhood.
Arthur Miller (1915—2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller's father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream”. However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
Miller's most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with this system. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
1.Why did Arthur Miller's father move to the USA?
A. He suffered from severe hunger in his home country.
B. He was attracted by the “Great American Dream.”
C. He hoped to make his son a dramatist.
D. His family business failed
2.The play Death of a Salesman________.
A. exposes the cruelty of the American business world
B. discusses the ways to get promoted in a company
C. talks about the business career of Arthur Miller
D. focuses on the skills in doing business
3.After it was first staged, Death of a Salesman________.
A. achieved huge success
B. won the first Tony Award
C. was warmly welcomed by salesmen
D. was severely attacked by dramatists
假定你是李华，你的美国朋友Peter想来中国旅行，他写信向你了解他到北京后乘坐何种交通工具旅行比较适宜。请你给他写封回信，建议他乘坐高铁。
建议理由：
1.便捷、准点；
2.舒适、安全；
3.购票方便、价格适宜。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头已为你写好，不计入词数。
参考词汇：中国高铁CRH (China Railway High-speed)
自助售票机self-service ticket machine
Dear Peter,
I’m expecting you to come to China.
______________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
短文改错
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以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处，每处错误仅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（∧），并在其下面写上该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。
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。
How can we help children in poor areas complete his basic education? Since their lack of education mainly result from low family income, to collect money for them is of greatly importance. With enough money, they will finish their education very easily than before. Besides, good teachers are also needed improve the teaching in such areas. They can teach there but help train the local teachers. What’s more, we can organize various event to increase these children’s interest at learning. We can also guide them to realize that the importance of education to their future. After all, their willingness to learn is the key to continue their school education.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
As is known to us, the year 2016 has one extra day in it — February 29th. This is because it’s 1. we call “a leap year”. Every four years, the year has 366 days in 2. instead of 365.
It is called a leap year because hundreds of years ago in England, the extra day wasn’t 3. (legal) recognized. There is a well-known tradition in the UK 4. (associate) with February 29th, introduced many centuries ago. Women are allowed to break with tradition and propose(求婚) to their boyfriends on this day. This all started back in the 5. (five) century, when a famous Irish saint made a 6. (complain) that women had to wait too long for men to propose. According to the legend, Saint Patrick said any female dreaming of a proposal could ask her boyfriend to marry her on this additional day in February. This so-called tradition 7. (write) in law in the thirteenth century. Scotland passed a law allowing women to propose to men in a leap year. It was said that if the men refused, they had to pay a fine!
Now in 2016, there are calls 8. February 29th to become a public holiday. Some people believe that it should be an 9. (office) day off, because no one gets 10. (many) payments for working an extra day in a leap year. For the moment though, the British still have to go to work on this day.
