Nowadays, most of us live a busy life. What do you do to keep yourself relaxed? Besides spending time with family, having a glass of wine with friends or reading a book, how about a hobby?

   Personally, I’m a collector. I like blue and white pieces the best---blue and white anything﹗Plates，jars，vases, cups, bowls---I love them all. Collecting items is like something you can’t get enough of. You get one, and you want to have more.

   I find collecting to be a fun and inspirational hobby. In many ways, it’s like a puzzle I’m never tired of solving. I look high and low for new pieces to add to my collection. I can often be found visiting Marshell’s, looking over their inexpensive offerings. In fact, I found one of my favorite pieces there.

   I’ve mixed inexpensive pieces from Marshell’s with more expensive finds. A lot of times, it’s the piece I’m not looking for that falls into my lap; I find a way to make it part of my blue and white family. What I love about my collection is that when I get inspired, I can move them around the house, mix and match and make things look fresh and new.

Ever since I was a little girl, blue has been my favorite color. I think I got it from my aunt in Mexico. Some of my earliest memories are visiting her in Mexico and sitting on a chair in her kitchen, which had blue and white tiles(瓷砖)from the floor to the ceiling. I would spend countless hours admiring all the beautiful blue and white plates and shiny blue tiles around her kitchen. Once I had a home, I began to build my own blue and white collection.

51. We can infer that in the writer’s opinion,_____________.

  A. having a hobby can help us relax

  B. reading a book alone is really boring

  C. keeping a hobby is not easy for most of people

  D. having a glass of wine with friends is not a good idea

52. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

  A. Collecting things requires a lot of money.

  B. People always want more than they need.

  C. People may not know what they want to collect.

  D. Once you start collecting things, it’s hard to stop.

53. If something falls into your lap, it means you_________.

  A. have been looking for it             B. don’t know what it is

  C. get it unexpectedly                 D. like it very much

54. What’s the last paragraph mainly about?

  A. When the writer started collecting things.

  B. When the writer started liking blue things.

  C. What kind of thing the writer collected first.

  D. Why the writer liked her aunt’s things so much.

Yesterday, our teacher asked us when people could be considered old. David said that when people got wrinkles (皱纹). However, Mary didn’t   31  . She thought people might gain wrinkles at an earlier age because of their    32   work. Then Lily said that those   33    their 60s or more could be called old people. This time, Emily expressed her doubt. She said that some old people might   34   be full of energy and working on their dreams, which made them appear  35   .The class was over and the teacher asked me to continue to  36   it after class.

The question  37    me of a saying of J.Barrymore: a man isn’t old   38   he is pursuing (追求 ) something.

My grandma is such a woman who   39    her dream even when she’s 70 now. She has kept her dream of being a painter since she was a little child.  40  , because her family was poor, she had to   41   her dream. She had to work to raise money so as to   42    her family. Although she had never forgotten her dream, she could hardly find any   43    to make it come true because of the tough work. Fortunately, a(n)    44   came when she retired from her work. She    45    taking painting lessons even though she was already old. At first, I was    46   her idea of attending school at such an old age, but after seeing her paint happily and enjoyably, I began feeling it a good   47  .She looks fine and seems   48   .

So if we have our dreams and try to   49   them, we aren’t old. If we don’t know what we want and let regrets be the   50   point of our lives, then we can be considered old.

31.    A.  answer              B.  agree                   C.  move               D.  understand

32.    A.  exciting             B.  common              C.  hard                 D.  old

33.    A.  reaching            B.  avoiding               C.  repeating          D.  confirming

34.    A.  sometimes         B.  almost                 C.  hardly              D.  still

35.    A.  attractive           B.  young                  C.  smart               D.  interesting

36.    A.  think about        B.  look for               C   refer to            D.  turn to

37.    A.  prevented          B.  spotted                C.  reminded          D.  puzzled

38.    A.  even if              B.  as if                    C.  so that             D.  as long as

39.    A.  remembers        B.  follows                C.  knows             D.  finds

40.    A.  However           B.  Also                    C.  Fortunately       D.  Approximately

41.    A.  give up              B.  search for            C.  put aside          D.  return to

42.    A.  combine            B.  protect                C.  leave                D.  support

43.    A.  way                  B.  person                 C.  place                D.  service

44.    A.  success             B.  chance                C.  excuse             D.  helper

45.    A.  stopped             B.  considered           C.  liked                D.  began

46.    A.  on                    B.  for                      C.  against             D.  with

47.    A.  choice               B.  dream                  C.  task                 D.  purpose

48.    A.  gentle                B.  energetic              C.  wealthy            D.  penniless

49.    A.  satisfy               B.  express                C.  change             D.  realize

50.    A.  tip                    B.  bottom                C.  center              D.  side

 The film was made _________ the soldiers who were devoted to the liberation of our motherland.

A .in praise of     B. in celebration of     C. in memory of      D. in search of

 ---I’d thought you couldn’t deal with the situation.

---On the contrary, it is quite _______ my power.

A. beyond          B. within               C. under        D. over

 When asked why he is so successful in his life, Rong Yiren said honesty is the ___________ cause of his success.

A. fundamental       B. unbelievable         C. obvious      D. genuine

 I ________ the piano when I was a little child, but I haven’t played recently, so I have forgotten a lot.

A. blew up       B. put up          C. took up          D. packed up

 I was talking with my monitor when a fight ________between the students of the two classes.

A. blocked out      B. hung out        C. watched out      D. broke out

 It is too early to tell whether ________ the public expenses will benefit the company workers or not.

A. cutting down     B. cutting up         C. cutting off        D. cutting away

 If you want to know whether you are fit to learn history and geography, you’d better _________your headteacher.

A. trick           B. consult           C. admire         D. terrify

 What _______ the foreign experts most is that the new factory is perfectly environment-friendly.

A. terrifies         B. reminds          C. forgives        D. impresses