Sam is twenty-seven now. He’s tall and strong. He worked hard in the small field. He’s known a girl called Mabel for three years, who lives in another village. He wishes she could marry him soon, but she won’t marry him until he has built a new house. He hasn’t enough money. Of course it’s difficult for him to do so.
Winter had come and the fields were covered with thick snow. Sam had nothing to do at home. Mabel told him to find some temporary employment in the town. He thought she was right and came to Mr White’s factory, where he carried stones from the hill to the workplaces. It was hard work but he was paid more. At the end of the month Mr White paid the young man nearly two thousand dollars. He was very happy. He hurried to the post office, but it was closed. He had a look at the clock on the wall. It was half past five, and he was told to go there the next morning. He had to return to the factory. He felt hungry and went into a restaurant and ate something. He didn’t see a thief following him, and as soon as he sat at table, the man sat down next to him and asked him to drink a cup with him. He agreed and drank a lot. And when he woke up two hours later, his money was stolen. He was sad of it and cried for a long time.
The following day Mr White saw the young man’s eyes were red and asked what had happened to him. He told him about it and at last he said, “I worked for the thief last month!”
根據(jù)材料內(nèi)容選擇最佳答案，將其標(biāo)號(hào)填入題前括號(hào)內(nèi)。
【小題1】Mabel doesn’t marry Sam because _______.

He Junquan is a Chinese swimmer and has won many Paralympic(殘奧會(huì)) gold medals. Born in Jingmen, Hubei province, He Junquan was a healthy boy. But one day at the age of three, he climbed up to the high-voltage electricity(高壓線) box and lost both of his arms forever. He became a disabled boy!
From then on he learnt to do everything with his feet: writing, eating, getting dressed and taking things. Seeing other pupils swimming in the river, he jumped in, too. Without arms, he suffered a lot in the river at the beginning. But he finally learnt to balance himself in water and could swim much faster than the other pupils. Once he even saved a little boy who fell into the water and couldn’t swim. His father was so happy to see that this son had a talent in swimming.
In 1995, He Junquan became a real swimmer. He practices swimming for more than four hours every day. Since 1996, he has won more than twelve gold medals of the world class. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, he won a silver medal. Reporting on the competition at the 2008 Games, Will Swanton of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote:
“The Water Cube has been a sight for sore(氣憤的) eyes. China’s He Junquan, with no arms, was leading the 50m backstroke(仰泳) final. … He came to the finish— and had to crash into the wall with his head. As he slowed down to lessen(減少) the impact(撞擊力), Brazilian Daniel Dias hit the wall first with a hand. You’ve never heard a silence like it.”
【小題1】What happened to He Junquan when he was three?

When Steven was a young boy, he moved quite often with his family and so he never had many friends. He spent a lot of time on his own and liked to play with electronic(電子的)things. Steven had a neighbour, Steve Wozniak. Steve was a little bit younger than Steven but also liked to play with electronic things. Steven made a microphone(麥克風(fēng))and Steve asked him many questions about it until he understood how it worked. Steven liked the fact that such a young boy was also interest ed in electronic things and so he taught him everything he knew.
When they were a little older and knew more about electronic things, they made a “blue box”. People could make free phone calls by breaking into the phone company’s system with this box. They sold this to many people even though it was illegal(非法的), but this is not why they are famous today.
Steven and Steve were the inventors of the first PC—personal computer. They called their first computer the Apple I. They invented it only for fun and to make themselves known among their friends. They did not think it would become so popular. They just liked playing computer games on it. Their computer made it cheaper and easier for people to own and use a computer. Their PCs were so popular that they made a new PC called the Apple II. Soon many schools, families and factories were using their computers.
Without the two clever men, the personal computers might never have appeared.
【小題1】Why didn’t Steven have many friends?

Today, after many days of practice and lots of matches, we entered the basketball final.
I was the leader of the team. At the very beginning, one student from our team got the ball and quickly shot a basket. Oh, it went in, 2:0. All our classmates cheered.
But after a few minutes there were some mistakes and we lost eight points. I changed two players, but it didn’t help.
At that time all our teammates felt worried and we even quarreled with each other angrily.  “It’s no use crying over spilt milk!” I shouted, “We must face it !” Let’s think about our mistakes and stop making them!”
We had a short meeting . The second half of the match began. There was a big change. At first, our team got the ball and I shot from the three-point line at once. The ball did a beautiful curve and went straight into the basket.
I become very confident. The other team was still very strong.
A good chance came! I got the ball again and shot into the basket! 12:9! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Am I that good at shooting? How could I get so many points?
We stayed in the lead. Finally the score was 18:16. We won!
【小題1】The passage mainly talks about________.

People fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944, when she acted in the movie National Velvet — the story of Velvet Brown, a young girl who won first place in a famous horse race. At first, the producers of the movie told Elizabeth Taylor that she was too short to play the part of Velvet. However, they waited for four months until three inches (英寸) added to her height. Elizabeth Taylor’s acting in National Velvet is still considered to be the best and National Velvet became Elizabeth Taylor’s first success.
Elizabeth Taylor was born in London in 1932. Her parents, both Americans, had moved to London for business. When World War II started, the Taylors moved to California, where Elizabeth Taylor started acting in movies. After her success as a child star, Elizabeth Taylor had no trouble moving into adult roles and won the Academy Award twice for Best Actress for her performance in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? (1966).
Elizabeth Taylor is a legend (傳奇人物) of our time. Like Velvet Brown in National Velvet, Elizabeth Taylor was very lucky, and she was hard-working, beautiful, famous and rich. When Elizabeth Taylor got older, she seldom acted in movies. Instead, she spent most of time on her business, and she often helped others. Several years ago, she raised more than $40 million for research and education. In March, 2011, Elizabeth Taylor died at the age of 79.
【小題1】The producers didn’t let Taylor play the part of Velvet at first because ______.

"I didn’t hear them call my name," explained Shelley Hennig to Active Teens (AT) as she talked about that exciting moment on national television when she won the honor of Miss Teen USA 2004. "Are you ready?" is what she heard. Then she said, "I shook my head no, and then they said ‘yes’ and it was announced again."
It was four days after that life changing moment for the seventeen-year-old high school student from Destrehan, Louisiana—she was still on cloud nine.
"I was so shocked! I never believed that it could actually really happen." Present in the audience that day were: her mother and father, older brother, her friends, and her dance teacher.
Understanding why members of her family and her friends would be there, AT asked why her dance teacher had traveled so far to see her compete（比賽）."She’s always been my role model. I’ve danced with her since I was six. She’s been through so many difficulties and came through them all. I’ve learned to get over bad life’s experiences and learned how to move on because of her."
One of those bad life’s experiences for Shelley happened three years ago when her brother Brad was killed in a drunk driving accident. He was 18. She found writing helped her get through the hard days. She said, "I write a lot about my brother. I write a lot, a lot, a lot...”
As Miss Louisiana Teen, she traveled around the state speaking to teens about the dangers of drinking and driving. In her role as Miss Teen USA, Shelley will continue to speak to youth about safe driving, in addition to(除…之外) many other things to help the youth.
When AT asked Miss Teen USA if she had any advice for our readers, she said, "Don’t let anyone change you. Hang out with people that make you feel good about yourself. That way, it is easy to be yourself."
【小題1】What do the words “on cloud nine” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

On a recent day, “Linsanity” is popular all over the world. It’s the combination of “Lin” & “insanity”, referring to the person who made surprising success.
“Lin” refers to Jeremy Lin, an American professional basketball player, with the Chinese name Shu How Lin. He is the first American player with Chinese descent（血統(tǒng)）.
Jeremy Lin was born on August 23, 1988. At the age of 5, He started playing basketball at the kindergarten. He went to Harvard University after playing at Palo Alto High School in California. He graduated in 2010 and joined the Golden State Warriors, an NBA team in California. In late 2011, Lin moved to another team - the New York Knicks at the very end of the year. The Knicks added him to their starting lineup（陣容）that month. He began averaging more than 20 points a game and leading the team to a series of wins.
Here is his career statistics（統(tǒng)計(jì)表）.
NBA Regular Season Accurate as of February 20, 2012

An armless pianist who plays with his toes has won the first series of China’s version of the internationally popular TV talent show, “China’s Got Talent.”
Liu Wei, a 23-year-old Beijing-born pianist, who lost both his arms at the aged of 10 when he was electrocuted（觸電）during a game of hide-and-seek. Liu Wei stayed in rehabilitation（康復(fù)）centre for 2 years. When he got out, he was introduced to Beijing’s disabled swimming team, and he managed to take 2 gold medals in the National Disabled Swimming Championship at the aged of 14. But soon he was told not to do too much sport by the doctor.
Liu Wei was very sad. Luckily, the door was shut on sports, but it opened in music. At the age of 18, he started to learn the piano. He could not find a teacher to lead him to play with his toes, so he began teaching himself. Liu said, “I knew if I tried, I might get a chance at success. If I didn’t try, I would lose my future.”
He carried on a daily 7-hour practice, his improvement gave him hope. He kept practicing and made progress gradually. In early 2011, he gave a memorable performance in Vienna’s Golden Concert Hall. In 2012, he received the award “Top Ten People Who Moved China”.
【小題1】Liu Wei lost both his arms when he was______ years old.
A. 10                       B. 14                       C. 23
【小題2】Besides playing the piano, Liu Wei is also good at _______.
A. playing games
B. learning from others
C. armless swimming
【小題3】Liu Wei was taught by ________ to play the piano with toes.
A. his teacher                 B. his mother                   C. himself
【小題4】The sentence “The door was shut on sports, but it opened in music” means that Liu Wei ______.
A. lost the future of music
B. got other chances at success
C. couldn’t do sports
【小題5】The best title of this passage is “_________”
A. One is never too old to learn
B. Time and tide wait for no man
C. Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Mr. Jones works in a factory far away from his home. One day he wanted to send a letter to his wife, but he could neither read nor write, and he had to work all day, so he could only look for somebody to write his letter late at night. At last he found the house of a letter-writer whose name was Nasreddin. 
Nasreddin was already in bed. “It is late,” he said. “What do you want?” “I want you to write a letter to my wife,” said Mr. Jones. Nasreddin was not pleased. He thought for a few seconds and then asked, “Has the letter got to go far?”
“What does that matter?” answered Mr. Jones. 
“Well, my writing is so strange that only I can read it, and if I have to travel a long way to read your letter to your wife, it will cost you a lot of money. ”Mr. Jones went away with no words.
【小題1】Mr. Jones is a ________.
A. letter-writer                    B. postman                  C. worker
【小題2】Mr. Jones looked for somebody to write a letter for him ______.
A. late at night
B. in the morning
C. in the afternoon
【小題3】Nasreddin was not pleased because he wanted to ______.
A. write the letter             B. make money               C. remain in bed
【小題4】We know from the story that Nasreddin is a _______ man.
A. kind                     B. funny                        C. strict
【小題5】Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Mr. Jones paid no money to Nasreddin.
B. Mr. Jones was happy when he heard the words.
C. Nasreddin wrote the letter for Mr. Jones.

Mum went to Peter’s bed and said, “I want to borrow Tim’s radio for you?” Peter touched the letter in his pocket (口袋) and said, “Thanks, Mum!” “Today I want to send you a special gift on the radio. It’ll surprise you. I will come back soon,” she said and quickly left in the heavy snow.
Peter took out the letter. He got it this afternoon. Mum didn’t know about it. Mum wrote in the letter: The 26^th of this month is my son Peter’s birthday. Could you bless（祝福）him? He has been ill for one month. The radio station wrote in the top: I’m sorry that we have cancelled（取消） this program.
Mum came back with a radio. There was lots of snow on her clothes. And the program began quickly. Next, Peter got very surprised. “At first, we planned to cancel this program, but lots of people like it very much. Now, let’s bless the following（下列的） people together. Kate, Martin, Linda┅” The list was very long. Mum was too tired and she fell asleep. Peter didn’t hear his name to the end. But he was quite moved. He woke up Mum, “Mum, I heard my name just now. Thank you for your gift, Mum!” Mum smiled with tears. Peter also smiled with tears. He believed it was his best gift.
【小題1】It was ____________ in Peter’s birthday.
A. rainy              B. snowy                  C. windy
【小題2】 What was Mum’s special gift to Peter?
A. She wrote a letter to him.           B. She blessed him in the radio.
C. She asked the radio station to bless him.
【小題3】Why didn’t Peter give the letter to his mother?   Because _________________.
A. he was ill for a month             B. his mother was very tired
C. his mother would be disappointed
【小題4】How did Peter’s mother feel after the program?
A. Moved              B. Tired              C. Surprised
【小題5】 What do you think of Peter?
A. He is a brave boy.     B. He likes telling lies.       C. He loves his mother.