Nearly everyone agrees that money doesn’t buy as much as it used to, no matter when you want to spend it. This is certainly true of the paper money that passes so quickly through one’s hands. But what about coins that seem to do very little except stay in purses and pockets? Unlike notes, metal money becomes more valuable the longer it is held, especially if it is put away where it won’t get scratched or worn. Why is this? One reason is that coins, being more durable, fall more readily into a category for collectors. Naturally, the rarer gold pieces must become more valuable as the price of this metal goes up.

But, curiously, one of the rarest coins in the world is not made of gold, but of the relatively cheaper silver. In 1840, the United States mint (造幣廠) struck 19570 silver dollars. That is what its records show. Today only six of this original number remain and these are unlikely ever to reach the auction (拍賣) market. So what happened to some 19564 large silver coins, not the easiest sort of things to lose? One of the more romantic theories is that they were part of the payment to Napoleon for the American land then known as Louisiana. But they never reached France. Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship transporting them was sunk, either by a storm or by pirates. The probable answer to the mystery is that they were melted down — since the silver value was greater than the actual value of the coin. What really happened to the rest will probably always remain a mystery. What is known is that whoever can come up with one will find himself instantly rich.

1.We can learn from the passage that _______.

A. money buys as much as it did before

B. money does not buy as much as it did before

C. paper money buys more than metal money

D. metal money buys more than paper money

2.Which of the following is true of a coin?

A. The longer it is held, the less valuable it becomes.

B. The more it wears out, the more valuable it becomes.

C. The less it gets scratched, the less it values.

D. The longer it lasts, the more it values.

3.According to this passage, one of the rarest coins in the world is made of _______.

A. silver B. gold

C. copper D. paper

4.Coins become more valuable because _______.

A. they stay in purses and pockets

B. the price of metal goes up

C. they fall more readily into a category for collectors due to their duration

D. Both B and C

5.What really happened to some 19564 large silver coins?

A. They were melted down.

B. They were sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.

C. It is still a mystery.

D. They were stolen by pirates.

[1]Although known as an extraordinarily successful businessman, Warren Buffet comes off as a pretty ordinary person.

[2]Looking back on his childhood, one can see how serious he was about making money. Buffet used to go door-to-door and sell soda pop. Later, he also worked at his grandfather’s grocery store. At the ripe age of 11, Buffet bought his first stock(股票). When his family moved to Washington D.C., Buffet became a paperboy for The Washington Post. While still in school, he was making $175 a month, a full-time wage for many young men.

[3]From the beginning, Buffet made his fortune from investing. He started with all the money that he had made from selling pop, delivering papers and so on. Between 1950 and l956, he grew his $9, 800 to $14, 000．From there, he organized investment partnerships with his family and friends, and then gradually drew in more people through very attractive terms.

[4]Buffet applied to Harvard Business School but , making it to be one of the worst admission decisions in Harvard history. The outcome ended up affecting Buffet’s life deeply, for he ended up attending Columbia Business School, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the father of securities analysis who provided the foundation for Buffet’s grand success.

[5]Buffet is a person of habit—same house, same office, same city. He doesn’t collect houses or cars or works of art, and he hates companies that waste money on such goods. Instead, he has established the Buffet Foundation, with a detailed plan on how to invest his money more wisely to society.

1.What kind of person is Buffet according to Paragraph 1? (no more than 10 words)

_____________________________________________________________________

2.What does the writer intend to tell us in Paragraph 2? (no more than 10 words)

_____________________________________________________________________

3.According to Paragraph 3, how did Buffet start his investment? (no more than 10 words)

_____________________________________________________________________

4.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with proper words. (no more than 3 words)

_____________________________________________________________________

5.Explain the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5.

_____________________________________________________________________

假設(shè)你是新華中學(xué)的學(xué)生李華，你校計(jì)劃于下周六上午主辦題為“My Dream”的英語演講比賽，你準(zhǔn)備參加。請你根據(jù)以下要點(diǎn)寫一篇演講稿：

1. 對夢想的看法；

2. 你的夢想；

3. 你打算如何實(shí)現(xiàn)你的夢想。

注意：1. 120-150詞；

2. 可適當(dāng)增加細(xì)節(jié)，以使文章連貫。

The day of my holiday arrived, but I wasn’t looking forward to it. I had little money and had only been able to afford to stay with my Aunt Rosa in Spain. So, I wasn’t really excited as I knew exactly what it was going to be like: lots of noisy cousins , and Aunt Rosa begging me to take her for a ride.

After I had checked in, I made my way slowly to the departure gate. As I was waiting to board the plane, I kept thinking about my ideal holiday destination: Jamaica, with its long, sandy beaches and crystal clear water.

As soon as the plane took off, I fell fast asleep and only woke to the sound of the announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten you seat belts, as we will shortly be landing in Kingston.” I froze in my seat. Was I dreaming? Kingston? Jamaica? I had boarded the wrong plane!

Immediately after the plane landed, I explained the situation to the authorities. It seems there were also three other passengers heading for Spain. Apparently it had been the airline’s fault, since the flight numbers for Spain and Jamaica were exactly the same! Therefore, with no flight back to London for a week, the airline had no choice but to pay for our stay.

So there I was, lying on the beach, enjoying the music and the marvelous food of Jamaica! As for Aunt Rosa, I suppose she just had to live without me!

1.Why did the writer choose to spend her holiday with her aunt in Spain?

A. She missed her cousins very much.

B. Her aunt begged her to go there.

C. She could hardly afford any better trip.

D. Spain was her ideal destination.

2.In the story, the writer ended up _________.

A. flying to London immediately

B. heading for Spain from Jamaica

C. complaining to the authorities

D. enjoying a free beach holiday

3.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A. A Lucky MistakeB. A Terrible Adventure

C. A Nice DreamD. A Well-Planned Trip

The Swiss army knife is a popular device that is recognized all over the world. In Switzerland, there is a saying that every good Swiss citizen has one in his or her pocket. But the knife had poor beginnings.

In the late nineteenth century, the Swiss army issued（發(fā)給） its soldiers a gun that required a special screwdriver（螺絲刀） to take it apart and clean it. At the same time, canned food was becoming common in the army. Swiss generals decided to issue each soldier a standard knife to serve both as a screwdriver and a can opener.

It was a lifesaver for Swiss knife makers, who were struggling to compete with cheaper German imports. In 1884, Carl Elsener, head of the Swiss knife manufacturer（maker） Victorinox, seized that opportunity with both hands, and designed a soldier's knife that the army loved. It was a simple knife with one big blade(刀片), a can opener, and a screwdriver.

A few years after the soldier's knife was issued, the "Schweizer Offizier Messer," or Swiss Officer's Knife, came on the market. Interestingly, the Officer's Knife was never given to those serving in the army. The Swiss army purchasers considered the new model with a corkscrew（瓶塞鉆） for opening wine not "essential for survival," so officers had to buy this new model by themselves. But its special multi-functional design later launched(發(fā)行) the knife as a global brand. After the Second World War, a great number of American soldiers were stationed in Europe. And as they could buy the Swiss army knife at shops on army bases, they bought huge quantities of them. However, it seems that "Schweizer Offizier Messer" was too difficult for them to say, so they just called it the Swiss army knife, and that is the name it is now known by all over the world.

1.What is the main purpose of the passage­?

A. To explain the origin of the Swiss army knife.

B. To introduce the functions of the Swiss army knife.

C. To emphasize the importance of the Swiss army knife.

D. To tell a story about the designer of the Swiss army knife.

2.What does "It" in the third paragraph refer to­?

A. The Swiss army needed a knife for every soldier.

B. Every good Swiss citizen had a knife in his pocket.

C. Swiss knives were competing with imported knives.

D. Canned food was becoming popular in the Swiss army.

3.Why didn't the Swiss army purchase the Swiss Officer's Knife­?

A. The design of the knife was too simple.

B. The knife was sold out to American soldiers.

C. The army had no budget to make the purchase.

D. The new design was not considered necessary for officers to own.

4.Who gave the name "the Swiss army knife" to the knife discussed in the passage­?

A. Carl Elsener.B. Swiss generals.

C. American soldiers. D. German businessmen.

It seems hard to watch someone yawn（打哈欠） and not to yawn ourselves. Even reading about yawning can make you do it. Now, a new study has found why yawning has such a powerful force.

Yawning when others yawn, the study suggests, is a sign of pity and a form of social connection. Kids don’t develop this deeply rooted behavior until around age four, the study found. Kids with autism (自閉癥) are less likely to catch yawns. In the most serious cases, they never do. Yawning might help doctors to see whether the children are developing rightly. The work could also lead to a better understanding of the ways that people communicate and connect.

"Emotional infection seems to be a born thing that connects us together," said Molly Helt, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Connecticut. "Yawning may be part of that." Inspiration for her study came when she tried to get her own autistic son to clear his ears on an airplane. She repeatedly yawned at him, hoping he would yawn back. He never did.

"The fact that autistic kids don’t do it might mean they’re really missing out on that emotional connection with people around them," she said. "The biggest thing people try to figure out after birth is how we become humans and understand that humans have minds that are different from others’," she added. "Autistic people never seem to understand that."

Like infectious （有感染力的）laughter and crying, scientists have found that yawning is a shared experience that promotes social connection. Helt said it could fight stress after a period of being nervous and spread a feeling of calm through a group.

1.What does the new study suggest, according to the first two paragraphs?

A. Yawning is a form of communication.

B. It is easy to stop yawning when you see others yawn.

C. Children follow others in yawning just after they are born.

D. Yawning has some mysterious force which is related to God.

2.According to Molly Helt, _________.

A. humans differ from animals because they communicate with others

B. yawning is a kind of emotional connection among humans

C. emotions are infectious, but yawning is not

D. yawning helps clear ears on planes

3.Which of the following is NOT true about yawning?

A. It is natural to yawn back if people around you yawn.

B. Some kids are too young to yawn after others.

C. Yawning can be used to test children’s development.

D. Kids with autism yawn easily when others yawn.

4.The author implies in the last paragraph that ________.

A. yawning is different from infectious laughter and crying in theory

B. it is bad manners to yawn on some social occasions

C. the more you yawn, the happier you will be

D. yawning can make people feel relaxed

Space is where our future is — trips to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Most people would think that aside from comets(彗星) and stars, there is little else out there. But, since our space journey started we have left so much trash（垃圾） there that scientists are now concerned that if we don't clean it up, we may all be in mortal （致命的）danger.

The first piece of space junk was created in 1964, when the American satellite Vanguard I stopped operating and lost its connection with the ground center. However, since it kept orbiting around the Earth without any consequences, scientists became increasingly comfortable abandoning things that no longer served any useful purpose in space.

It is estimated that there are now over 500,000 pieces of man-made trash orbiting the Earth at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour. The junk varies from tiny pieces of paint chipped off rockets to cameras, huge fuel tanks, and even odd items like the million-dollar tool kit that astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn Piper lost during a spacewalk.

The major problem with the space trash is that it may hit working satellites and damage traveling spacecraft(飛船). Moreover, pieces of junk may collide（碰撞） with each other and break into pieces which fall back to the Earth. To avoid this, scientists have invented several ways for clearing the sky. Ground stations have been built to monitor larger pieces of space trash to prevent them from crashing into working satellites or space shuttles. Future plans include a cooperative effort among many nations to stop littering in space and to clean up the trash already there.

1.What was the first piece of man-made space trash­?

A. A camera.B. A tool kit.

C. A fuel tank. D. A broken satellite.

2.Why were scientists NOT concerned about space trash in the beginning?

A. It no longer served any useful purpose.

B. It was millions of miles away from the Earth.

C. It did not cause any problems.

D. It was regarded as similar to comets and stars.

3.Which of the following statements is true about space junk?­

A. It is huge, heavy machines.

B. It never changes position.

C. It floats slowly around the Earth.

D. It may cause problems for space shuttles.

4.What has been done about the space trash problem­?

A. Scientists have cleaned up most of the trash.

B. Large pieces of space trash are being closely watched.

C. Many nations have worked together to stop polluting space.

D. Ground stations are built to help store the trash properly in space.

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從短文后的選項(xiàng)中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有兩項(xiàng)為多余選項(xiàng)。

I had an experience once which taught me something about the ways people made a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I officiated(主持) at two funerals for two elderly women. 1. . At the first home, the son of the deceased(已故) woman said, “If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It’s my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son said, “If only I had not insisted her going to Florida, she would be alive today. 2. . It is my fault.”

When things don’t turn out as we would like them to, we tend to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course, for example, keeping mother at home, would have turned out better. 3.

There seem to be elements involved in our readiness to feel guilty. The first lies in our belief that the world makes sense---there is a reason for everything that happens.

The second is the thought that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. 4. . A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and calls the rest of the world to its tasks. 5. . When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely abandon that childish thought that our wishes cause things to happen.

A.That long airplane ride was more than she could take

B.After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

C. Life and dead is an unsolved mystery.

D.The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood

E.He cries, and someone comes to attend to him

F.Both died a natural death

G. They believe that they are responsible for what has happened.

Over the years, thanks to my life’s obstacles(障礙), I understood the meaning of faith and the strong will to survive. It was Hurricane Ike that made me fully____ the beauty of our strength and a human’s motivation to ____.

Mom had a two-week ____ in summer. While we enjoyed our holiday in Southeast Texas, we didn’t realize the fact that Ike ____ cause months and likely years of “l(fā)abor”. By September 7th, the “eyes of Texas” were watching Hurricane Ike more ____, making the typical mad rush for last-minute hurricane ____. Two days later, both oil and ice were in ____ demand.

In the early hours of September 11th, some neighbors were planning to ____the storm in their homes, ____ others were making final preparations to get away. At first, we decided to stay. But that afternoon, the Houston-Galveston area would be on the more ____ side of the storm. Mom and I packed some of our most ____ belongings in the car and ____ the East Texas town of Lufkin.

As Ike pushed farther inland, we ____power in Lufkin. On Sunday, our next-door neighbor told us via cell phone that our ____ had remained well. Our hopes could not have been ____. But a few hours later, the neighbors reported that our brick chimney had ____, and it was sitting on our living room, ____ a hole in the roof between two skylights (天窗).

We wouldn’t be allowed to return home ____ September 17th. I climbed upstairs, and looked toward the hole in the roof which showed a beautiful blue sky.

Without hesitation, I shouted, “Wow! A third skylight!”

My neighbors could not believe I was making jokes ____ crying, but ____ is always good medicine. It was with that joke that I knew, given time, everything would be okay.

1.A observeB. appreciateC. exploreD. improve

2.A. workB. apologizeC. recoverD. change

3.A. vacationB. journeyC. meetingD. schedule

4.A. mustB. mightC. should D. would

5.A. closelyB. constantlyC. warninglyD. differently

6.A. adventureB. equipmentC. suppliesD. reports

7.A. basicB. highC. pureD. neat

8.A. get throughB. put awayC. test outD. suffer from

9.A. sinceB. whenC. untilD. while

10.A. dangerousB. abundantC. peacefulD. awesome

11.A. availableB. concreteC. prized D. potential

12.A. set outB. headed forC. settled downD. watched out

13.A. providedB. reducedC. producedD. lost

14.A. gardenB. houseC. poolD. yard

15.A. clearerB. wilderC. lowerD. higher

16.A. passedB. stoodC. goneD. followed

17.A. leavingB. diggingC. fillingD. kicking

18.A. by B. before C. until D. after

19.A. in spite ofB. instead ofC. apart fromD. in terms of

20.A. faithB. willC. strengthD. laughter

閱讀下列材料，在空白處填入適當(dāng)?shù)膬?nèi)容（不多于3個(gè)單詞）或括號內(nèi)單詞的正確形式。

A jobless man applied for the position of “office boy” at a big firm.

The HR manager ___1.__ (interview) him, then a test: clean the floor. “You are hired,” he said, “give me your email address, ___2.__ I’ll send you the application to fill.” The man replied “I don’t have a computer, ___3.__ an email”.

“I’m sorry,” said the HR manager, “that means you do not exist. And ___4.__ doesn’t exist cannot have the job.” The man left ___5.__ no hope at all. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket.

He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10 KG tomato crate. He then sold the tomatoes in a door to door round. In less than two hours, he ___6.__ (success) in doubling his capital. He repeated the operation 3 times, and returned home with $60.

5 years later, the man is one of the ___7.__ (big) food retailers(零售商) in the US. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance.

He called ___8.__ insurance broker, and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied: “I don’t have an email”. The broker replied ___9.__ (curious), “You don’t have an email, and yet have established an empire! Do you imagine ___10.__ you could have been if you had an email?

The man thought for a while, and replied: “An office boy!”