I grew up in one of the poorest areas in Bradford. I live in a three-bedroom house with six brothers and sisters. I studied very hard . I got the best results in the history of the school. Other students would be happy with receiving such results. Their parents would give them an MP5 player as a prize or take them for a trip. What about me? In fact it made me sad. It was because my application(申请)to Imperial College London didn’t pass. It is my dream to study medicine there.
I know that nothing in life is easy. I won’t give up. I will apply again the following year. While some students are traveling during the holiday, I am working hard.  I help the doctors look after sick people in a hospital . I believe I must become a doctor one day.
【小题1】How many brothers and sisters does the writer have?

Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.

 I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception（接收）.

 My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land and loved to work in the garden among her flowers and vegetables. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.

 In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk. She loved to tell how my playpen（婴儿圈栏）sat in the kitchen next to the radio and there was one song I particularly loved called "Ivory Tower".

As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit the farm every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.

Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.

My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.

Then the radio announcer of this oldie station came on. "Here's one we haven't heard in a while," and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves. “Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower...”.

1.The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons EXCEPT that

    ________.

A. it was too cold and quiet

B. she could only sing one song on the small farm

C. there was nothing more that could make her excited

D. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat

2.From the first paragraph, we know that the writer’s mother ________.

    A. passed away four years ago

 B. left the small farm with Lord

C. left for Lord to live her own way

    D. preferred to be with Lord

3.The underlined word reminisced in the fifth paragraph probably means ________.

A. recalled       B. comforted       C. shouted        D. sighed

4.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage _______.

A. The writer was able to sing before she could speak.

B. The writer preferred to live a busy life in the city.

C. The writer was still quite familiar with the song "Ivory Tower".

D. The writer treasured all her childhood memories in the small farmhouse.

5.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? _______

A. Cherish life                      B. My happy childhood

C. Our small farmhouse               D. Mom’s music

1. Maria got this wedding invitation from          .

   A. Carrie.           B. Joe.            C. Monica.             D. James

2. Monica and James are taking part in the wedding on          .

   A. Friday morning.    B. Friday afternoon.   C. Saturday morning.   D. Saturday afternoon.

3 . What does “getting married” mean in Chinese?

   A. 参加聚会        B. 过圣诞节        C. 做礼拜           D. 结婚

4. The friends to the wedding party are going to have dinner         .

   A. in Suzhou.        B. at Henry’s house    C. at St John’s Church  D. at the Blue Sky Restaurant

5. From the invitation card, we know that         .

   A. Monica is having fun in Suzhou.           B. they are having the wedding in January.

   C. Monica is going to buy a camera for Joe     D. the wedding dinner starts at 7:00 p.m.

Evelyn Glennie was the first lady of solo percussion in Scotland. In an interview, she talked about how she became a percussion soloist（打击乐器独奏演员）in spite of deafness.
“Early on I decided not to allow the   1  of others to stop me from becoming a musician. I grew up on a farm in northeast Scotland and began   2  piano lessons when I was eight. The older I got, the more my passion（酷爱）for music grew. But I also began to lose my   3 . Doctors told me that the nerve damage(神经损伤) was the  4  and by age twelve, I was completely deaf. But my love for music never left me.”
“My   5  was to become a percussion soloist, even though there were none at that time. To perform, I learned to ‘hear’ music differently from others. I play in my stocking feet and can  6  the pitch of a note（音调高低）by the vibrations（振动）I feel through my body and through my imagination. My sound world exists by making use of almost every   7 that I have.”
“I decided to be a musician even though I was deaf, and applied to the famous Royal Academy of Music in London. No other deaf student had   8  this before and some teachers disagreed with me. Because of my performance, I finally entered the academy and went on to  9  with the academy’s highest honors a few years later.”
“I’ve been a soloist for more than ten years. 10  the doctor thought I was totally deaf, it didn’t mean that my passion couldn’t be realized. I would encourage people not to allow themselves to be limited by others. Follow your passion; follow your heart. They will lead you to the place you want to go.”