–Has your father returned from Africa yet?

–Yes, but he _____here for only three days before his company sent him to Australia.

A．has been          B．will be            C．would be          D．was

Bobby was sitting out in his back yard in the snow. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them. Try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother’s Christmas gift.

    Ever since his father had passed away three years ago, his mother worked nights at the hospital, but the small wage could only be stretched so far.

    What the family lacked in money and material things, they more than made up for in love and family unity. They ran the household in their mother’s absence. All three of his sisters had already made beautiful gifts for their mother.

    It was Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing. Bobby started to walk down to the street. He walked from shop to shop. Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach. It was starting to get dark, then suddenly his eyes caught a shiny dime. Never has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby did at that moment.

    He went inside a flower shop. When the owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower. The shop owner looked at Bobby, then said, “You just wait here and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

    The shop owner returned holding red roses all tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby’s heart sank as the owner placed them gently into a long white box. “That will be ten cents, young man,” said the shop owner, reaching out his hand for the dime. Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his dime.

    Then the shopkeeper’s wife appeared. “Where are the roses you were fixing?”

    The shop owner replied, “A strange thing happened to me this morning. I thought I heard a voice telling me to set aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift. I wasn’t sure at the time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set them aside anyway. When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was.”

1.According to the first three paragraphs we know that _____.

    A. Bobby’s sisters didn’t help Bobby to buy a gift

    B. Bobby had known what gift he’d give to his mother

    C. the children in the family all loved their mother

    D. Bobby’s family was rich before his father died

2.Why did Bobby walk along the street?

    A. Because he didn’t know what to do. 

    B. Because he wanted to try his luck there.

    C. Because he wanted to get some money.

    D. Because he hoped to see what he could get.

3.What could he buy with a dime then?

    A. A flower.            B. Nothing.     C. A piece of cake.       D. Many flowers.

4.Bobby slowly gave the dime to the shop owner because _______.

    A. he did not want any rose flowers

B. the flowers weren’t worth a dime

    C. the shop owner would cheat him

D. he hardly believed what had happened

5.From the last two paragraphs we can infer that the shop owner ______.

    A. was shocked by the voice he heard       

B. was always ready to help others

    C. didn’t know how to run a business      

D. was good at making up stories

In recent years, the world has made progress in reducing deaths among children under the age of five. A new report says an estimated 6.9 million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. That compares to about twelve million in1990.
The report says child mortality rates have fallen in all areas. It says the number of deaths is down by at least 50 percent in eastern, western and southeastern Asia. The number also fell in North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ties Boerma is head of the WHO’s Department of Health Statistics and Informatics. He says most child deaths happen in just a few areas.
TIES BOERMA: “Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia face the greatest challenges in child survival. More than eighty percent of child deaths in the world occur in these two regions. About half of child deaths occur in just five countries—India, which actually takes twenty-four percent of the global total; Nigeria, eleven percent; the Democratic Republic of Congo, seven percent; Pakistan, five percent and China, four percent of under-five deaths in the world.”
Ties Boerma notes that, in developed countries, one child in one hundred fifty-two dies before his or her fifth birthday. But south of the Sahara Desert, one out of nine children dies before the age of five. In Asia, the mortality rate is one in sixteen.  
The report lists the top five causes of death among children under five worldwide. They are pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and problems both before and during birth.
Tessa Wardlaw is with the U-N Children’s Fund. She is pleased with the progress being made in Sub-Saharan Africa. The area has the highest under-five mortality rate in the world. But she says the rate of decline in child deaths has more than doubled in Africa.
TESSA WARDLAW: “We welcome the widespread progress in child survival, but we importantly want to stress that there’s a lot of work that remains to be done. There’s unfinished business and the fact is that today on average, around nineteen thousand children are still dying every day from largely preventable causes.”
The World Health Organization says one way to solve these problems is to make sure health care services are available to women. In this way, medical problems can be avoided or treated when identified.
【小题1】Since 1990, the number of the children who died before 5 in the world has dropped by about__________.

Imagination and fantasy can play an important role in achieving the things we fear. Children know this very well. Fred Epstein ,in his book If I Make It to Five, tells a story he heard from one of friends about Tom, a four-year-old boy with a cancer in his back bone. He came through several operations and a lot of pain by mastering his imagination.

Tom loved to pretend, and he particularly loved to play superheroes ,Dr. Epstein explained that it was actually a brilliant way for his young mind to handle the terrifying and painful life he led.

The day before his third trip to the operating room, Tom was terribly afraid. ”Maybe I could go as Superman ,”he whispered to his mom. Hearing this, the mother hesitated for a while. She had avoided buying the expensive costume（戏装），finally she agreed.

The next day Tom appeared as the powerful Superman, showing off through the hospital halls and coolly waving his hand to the people greeting him along the way. And Tom, with the strength of his fantasy, successfully made it through the operation.

The power of imagination need not be reserved for children only. We all have the power to use our fantasies to attempt things we never thought possible, to go through those things that seem impossible, and to achieve what we never believed we could. Just as Dr. Epstein puts it ,”If you can dream it, you can do it”

It doesn‘t mean that you should dress as a superhero for your next job interview. But, next time you are texted in a way that seems impossible, imagine what it would take to overcome it .Become the person you need to become to win over your challenge and do it in your mind first. So, let your imagination run wild, and dare to dream.

1.What do we know about Tom?

A．He was seriously ill                      B．He was a dishonest boy.

C．He was crazy about magic                 D．He was Dr.Epstein’s patient

2.What can be inferred about Tom’s mother?

A．She was a rich lady                      B．She refused Tom’s request

C．She wanted Tom to be a superhero          D．She wanted to get Tom through the pain

3.When Tom went for the third operation,he    .

A．pretended to be painful                  B．acted like a superhero

C．appeared in poor spirit s                  D．argued with his mother

4.In the last paragraph, you are advised    .

A．to go through some difficult tests

B．to wake up from your wild dreams

C．to become a powerful person in your mind

D．to wear expensive clothes for job interviews

5.What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To tell us an interesting story.

B．To help us make right decisions.

C．To advise us to care about children.

D．To encourage us to use our imagination.

阅读下面的短文，然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。
A report was shown in the yesterday’s newspaper, which made all the families moved deeply. This report was about a seven-year-old boy, named BoWen, suffered from blood cancer and the doctor said he would die soon. But he said he didn’t want to die before his dream came true.
Bo Wen has stayed with his father all the time since his mother divorced with his father five years ago. But as soon as his mother heard that Bo Wen was seriously sick, she came to Bo Wen in a flash and was willing to donate her blood to Bo Wen.
Seeing mother again, BoWen was very happy and excited. Gradually, he still found mother and father didn’t get on well with each other. How he hoped they would get together again! So he thought of a good idea. Every time when parents were not beside, he sent messages to mother with father’s mobile phone and to Father with mother’s in the same way which read: “I love you, I miss you, I am waiting for you to have dinner at home, I am mistaken, please forgive me and so on”. At the beginning, his parents misunderstood each other. However, realizing that all the messages were sent by Bo Wen, they felt very shocked and puzzled. They went to Bo Wen. To their surprise, Bo Wen said very difficultly “Sorry but I heartedly hope you will remarry and won’t let me alone again”.
At last, they held a wedding happily. And Bo Wen became better and better.
读了这篇文章后, 全班同学非常佩服Bo Wen的做法，孩子生命垂危之时，还为父母做了如此伟大的事情，请给Bo Wen写一封信，发表你的感言。
【写作内容】
1．以约30个词概括短文的要点；
2．然后以120个词介绍你的感受，并包括如下要点：
（1）小Bo Wen 的伟大事迹感染社会；
（2）描述“爱”使家庭重新结合；
（3）表达你的感言。
【写作要求】
1．作文中可使用自己的真实打算或虚构的打算，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2．作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3．信的开头已经写出来。
【评分标准】
概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，语篇连贯。
Dear Little Bo Wen,
Thank you for your doing everything for your parents.
                                                                                       
                                                                                      
Wish you in good health soon!
Love yours,
Peter