Have you ever heard anyone say“It’s raining cats and dogs”? It means“It’s raining hard!”
　　But sometimes cats and dogs do drop from the sky! Here’s how it happens.
　　Not so long ago, a country far away had many large rats. The people there said,“We need cats!”So cats were sent to them by airplane. But the country had many mountains. It was hard for an airplane to land. So the cats came down by parachute(降落傘). Did the cats like the ride? They didn’t say they didn’t! And today they are still catching rats!
　　In another country far away, there is snow the year around. People sometimes got lost in it.
　　“We need big dogs!”the people said.“The dogs could find people lost in the snow. The dogs could help bring them home. Where can we get big dogs?”
　　A man across the sea had big dogs to sell.“I will send dogs to you.”He said.“I have some very big ones. They can find people lost in the snow.”
　　He sent the dogs by airplane.
　　But the airplane didn’t land in the snow. The dogs came down by parachute―you guessed it!
　　Did the dogs like the ride? They didn’t say they didn’t! And today they are well and happy. They find anyone who gets lost in the snow. Then they help him get home. Good dogs!
　　Remember it, so you can say,“Yes, it does rain cats and dogs sometimes. They came down by parachute!”
　　1．The underlined word“it”in Paragraph 2 refers to_________.
　　A. the weather
　　B. the saying“It’s raining cats and dogs.”
　　C. the saying“It’s raining hard.”
　　D. the fact that real cats and dogs drop from the sky
　　2．Cats and dogs drop from the sky because_________.
　　A. there are many mountains in the country
　　B. it snows the year around in the country
　　C. it was hard for a plane to land in the two countries
　　D. coming down by parachute could save money
　　3．The underlined sentence“They didn’t say they didn’t!”in Paragraph 3 means“_________”.
　　A. Poor animals       B. Good animals
　　C. Have a nice trip       D. Thank you
　　4．Which of the following is not true according to the passage?
　　A. Cats and dogs can help people quite a lot.
　　B.“It rains cats and dogs.”usually means a heavy rain.
　　C. When the people saw cats drop from the plane, they were pleased.
　　D. The man across the sea didn’t want his dogs dropped by air.
　　5．The main purpose of the passage is to_________.
　　A. tell the readers a famous British saying
　　B. tell the readers of a new meaning about an old saying
　　C. show cats and dogs are our good friends
　　D. show parachutes is an important invention

B

Mr. Cooper arrived at London airport at the end of a two-week holiday. It had been very hot in Rome, so Mr. Cooper had cut the beard that he had always worn. But the photo in his passport showed him with beard.
　　An officer looked at the photo for a moment and said,“Will you excuse me, sir? Please sit down. I won’t keep you waiting long.”With this, he walked away and showed the passport to a second officer, saying,“I know the face.”The second officer took a look at the photo and asked where Mr. Cooper had just come back from. When he heard Mr. Cooper was from Rome, the second officer’s eyes lit up and said,“An Englishman with a beard stole an old painting in Rome on Friday. And that man looked just like the man who...”Suddenly it came to the first officer who Mr. Cooper was! He returned to Mr. Cooper and asked,“Did you teach at Feltham High School?”When Mr. Cooper answered, with some surprise, that he did, the first officer smiled and said,“I thought so. I’m Alan Simpson. You taught me French. You haven’t changed a bit.”
　　6．Mr. Cooper was _________.
　　A. an Englishman       B. a Frenchman
　　C. an Italian        D. a policeman
　　7．Mr. Cooper’s photo showed_________.
　　A. he was much younger for his age
　　B. he was a little older for his age
　　C. he looked like the thief
　　D. he was a young man
　　8．Why did the first officer show Mr. Cooper’s passport to his colleague?
　　A. He was sure Mr. Cooper was the thief.
　　B. He was not quite sure whether Mr. Cooper was the Englishman who had stolen the painting.
　　C. He was glad to see his old teacher.
　　D. He was surprised to find his old teacher had become a thief.
　　9．_________ inclined to(有……傾向)take this Mr. Cooper as the thief from Rome.
　　A. Alan Simpson was
　　B. The second officer was
　　C. Both the two officers were
　　D. Neither of the two officers was
　　10．When he came to know the first officer had been one of his old pupils, Mr. Cooper _________.
　　A. got quite angry with him
　　B. was angry with the two policemen
　　C. felt ashamed of being regarded as a thief
　　D. felt surprised

　　七、Error correction (短文改錯)10分
　　　　At the end of the 19th century a Frenchman goes     1．_________
　　to England to learn English. He rented hotel room      2．_________
　　in London and spent all his times remembering a      3．_________
　　dictionary. After he learned from all the words       4．_________
　　in the dictionary, he went into the city talk to       5．_________
　　the people. But he could not make himself understand.     6．_________
　　So he went back to his room and spent much more      7．_________
　　days remembering a grammar book. He learned      8．_________
　　all the rules but went out again to talk.         9．_________
　　But he still unable to communicate. Greatly        10．_________
　　Discouraged, he collected his baggage and went home to France.

八、Guided writing(書面表達)20分
　　最近, 你班同學正在參加21世紀英文報“大家談”欄目的討論。本文話題為: 父母的收入有沒有必要讓孩子知道?
　　請根據(jù)下表所列情況給報社寫一封信，客觀地介紹討論情況。

70%的同學認為 30%的同學認為   
1．父母的收入應該讓孩子知道; 知道后, 知之來之不易，能夠更加努力學習; 知道后, 可以理解家長艱辛, 學會節(jié)省, 為大人分憂。 1．父母的收入沒有必要讓孩子知道;
2．如果知道父母收入較好，會助長亂花錢的風氣; 知道父母收入后, 會以為不用努力也能靠父母，影響學習動力。 
要求: 詞數(shù)100左右。詞匯: 收入 income
　　Dear Editor,
　　I’m writing to tell you about the discussion we recently had about whether we should know our parents’ income.
　　________________________________________________________________________
Yours truly，
Wang Mei