One day, I happened to meet an Englishman in the street and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be very surprised, gently shaking his head and saying “You don’t say!”

I was confused, and I thought, “Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about.” Then I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever visited it?”

“Certainly! Everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave here without seeing it. The Great Wall is wonderful! ” “Yes, it is one of the wonders in the world. And people of many countries have come to visit it.” As I went on telling him more about it, he stopped me again, “You don’t say!”

I couldn’t help asking, “Why couldn’t I talk about it?”

“Well, I didn’t stop you talking about it,” he answered, greatly surprised.

“Didn’t you say ‘You don’t say!’?” I asked again.

Hearing this, the foreigner laughed loudly. He began to explain, “’You don’t say!’ means ‘Really’. Perhaps you know little about English idioms(习惯用语).”

Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms.

1.What made the foreigner laugh loudly?

A．English idioms.

B．The writer’s question.

C．Their talking about the Great Wall

D．The writer’s way of learning English

2.Where does the story most probably happen?

A．In China.	B．In America.
C．In England.	D．In Japan.

3.The English idiom “You don’t say!” means _______.

A．Thank you

B．Excuse me

C．OK

D．Really

4.What does the writer learn from his own experience? He should _______.

A．improve his spoken English

B．speak with foreigners in a polite way

C．pay attention to English idioms

D．be brave enough talking with foreigners

5.The story tells us _______ between languages in different countries.

A．the difference	B．the popularity
C．the grammar rule	D．the change

 

Brownie and Spotty were neighbor dogs. They loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their houses.
One evening, Brownie’s family noticed that their dog hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him, but with no success. Brownie didn’t show up the next day, and by the next week he was still missing.
Curiously, Spotty showed up at Brownie’s house alone. He barked loudly. But busy with their own lives, Brownie’s family just ignored (忽略) their neighbor’s nervous little dog.
Finally, one morning Spotty refused to take “no” for an answer. He followed Ted, Brownie’s owner, everywhere he went. He barked, then rushed towards a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, “ Follow me!”
Finally, Ted followed the dog across the empty lot. The dog led the man to a tree a half-mile from the house. There Ted found Brownie alive. One of his legs was crushed (夹住) in a trap. Ted wished he had taken Spotty’s earlier appeals (求助) seriously.
Then Ted noticed something amazing. In a circle around the injured dog, he saw a lot of dog food. They were the remains of lots of meals.
Spotty had been visiting Brownie every day. He had stayed with Brownie to protect him, snuggling(依偎) with him at night to keep him warm and nuzzling(用鼻子爱抚) him to keep his spirits up.
【小题1】What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?

A．Brownie and Spotty didn’t like their owners.

B．Brownie was missing for three days.

C．Brownie’s family didn’t love him.

D．Spotty probably knew where Brownie was.

【小题2】According to the story, which of the following is TRUE?

A．Spotty barked loudly at Ted because he was scared.

B．Ted followed Spotty because Spotty asked him to.

C．Spotty succeeded in escaping from the trap.

D．Brownie had nothing to eat that whole week.

【小题3】The underlined phrase “keep his spirits up” in the last paragraph probably means______.

A．feed him

B．praise him

C．comfort him

D．protect him

【小题4】What does the story aim to tell us?

A．Dog is man’s best friend.	B．Even dogs can have strong friendship.
C．Dogs are one of the cleverest animals.	D．Dogs have a special way to look for help.

Fat and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket - anything with a round ball, I was useless,” he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the one always made fun of in school gym classes in Devonshire, England.

It was a mountain bike he received for his 15^th birthday that changed him. At first he went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to ride the bike along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set up his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed and strength. At the age of 18, he ran his first marathon.

The following year he met John Ridgway and started to work as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of adventure（冒险） in Scotland, where he learnt about Ridgway’s cold-water exploits. Greatly interested, Saunders read all he could about North Pole explorers and adventures, he decided that this would be his future.

In 2001, after becoming a skillful skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition （探险）towards the North Pole. It took unbelievable energy. He suffered frostbite（冻伤）, ran into a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit, pulling his sled up and over the rocky mountains.

Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the North Pole by himself than any other British man. His old playmates would not believe the change.

1. What changed Saunders according to Paragraph 2?

       A. A friend’s words.               B. A mountain bike.

       C. His 18^th birthday gift.          D. His first marathon.

2.What did Saunders do in 2001?

A. He decided to build up his body.

B. He met John Ridgway in Scotland.

C. He worked as an instructor at school.

D. He took an adventure to the North Pole. 

3.What does the story mainly tell us about Saunders?

A. He is a success in sports.           B. He is the youngest British skier.

C. He is Ridgway’s best student.         D. He is a good instructor at school.

 

Sally was a student. It was going to be her mother’s birthday. She wanted to buy her a present that would be nice and useful but not expensive.
A week before her mother’s birthday, she went shopping after a quick and simple lunch. When she had been looking for half an hour, she found a shop that was selling cheep umbrellas（伞）, and decided to take a black one, since her mother had lost hers the month before.
She thought, “You could carry that when you are wearing clothes of any color.” So she decided to buy a lovely black umbrella and took it back to school with her until her classes had finished.
On her way back home in the train that evening, she felt hungry because she had such a small lunch that she went along to the buffet car（餐车） for another sandwich and cup of coffee. She had left the black umbrella above her seat in the compartment（车厢）, but when she got back, it had gone! When she had left the compartment, there had been no other passengers（乘客） in it, but now there were three.
Sally began to cry when she saw that the umbrella was no longer there. The other passengers felt very sorry for her and asked what the matter was. She told them that the black umbrella she had bought for her mother was gone, and that she had to get out at the next station. After the three other passengers heard it, they asked her for her mother’s address so that they could sent the umbrella to her if someone had taken it by mistake and brought it back after Sally had got out of the train.
The next week, Sally heard from her mother. It said, “Thank you very much for your lovely presents, but why did you send me three black umbrellas?”
【小题1】Which of the following is the best for the sentence “You could carry that when you are wearing clothes of any color?”

A．You can carry it when you are wearing any clothes.

B．Any color of your clothes will be all right.

C．The umbrella will be OK for your clothes in any colors.

D．You can take any clothes that you like to wear.

【小题2】What does the story infer（推断）?

A．Her mother would write to her if she didn’t receive the presents.

B．The three umbrella were sent by the girl.

C．Only four people had ever been to the compartment.

D．Nobody brought the umbrella back.

【小题3】How many umbrellas did Sally’s mother get at last?

A．No.

B．Only one.

C．Three.

D．Four.

【小题4】The best name of the story is ________.

A．A Lucky Girl	B．The Missing Umbrella
C．A Happy Mother	D．Mother’s Present

【小题5】What does the writer want to tell us?

A．You should take care of your things when you are traveling.

B．Show your love to others, and they will bring you love.

C．Children should often come back to see their parents.

D．It’s no use crying when you are in trouble.

A group of swans flew down to a beach where a crow(乌鸦) was jumping around. The crow watched them with disdain(鄙视).

“You have no flying skills at all!” he said to the swans. “All you can do is to move your wings. Can you turn over in the air? No, that’s beyond you. Let’s have a flying competition. I’ll show you what real flying is!”

One of the swans, a strong young male, took up the challenge. The crow flew up and began to show his skills. He flew in circles, performed other flying tricks, and then came down and looked proudly at the swan.

Now it was the swan’s turn. He flew up, and began flying over the sea. The crow flew after him, making all kinds of comments(评价) about his flying. They flew on and on till they couldn’t see the land and there was nothing but water on all sides. The crow was making fewer and fewer comments. He was now so exhausted that he found it hard to stay in the air, and had to struggle to keep himself from falling into the water.

The swan pretended(假装) not to notice, and said, “Why do you keep touching the water, brother? Is that another trick?”

“No,” said the crow. He knew he had lost the competition. “I’m in trouble because of my pride! If you don’t help me, I’ll lose my life…”

The swan took pity on him, and took him on his shoulders and flew back to the beach.

1.What’s the correct order of the following events?

a. The crow showed off its flying skills.

b. The swan felt pity for the crow and saved it.

c. The crow laughed at the swan’s flying.

d. The crow followed the swan and got into trouble.

e. The crow challenged the swans and a strong young swan accepted it.

A. e, c, d, a, b             B. a, e, c, d, b              C. c, e, a, d, b           D. e, a, d, c, b

2.What does the underlined word “exhausted” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. Tired.                     B. Angry.            C. Frightened.          D. Regretful.

3.Why did the crow keep touching the water?

A. It was showing another flying skill.

B. It was struggling to keep itself from falling into the water.

C. It was thirsty and wanted to drink some water.

D. It was enjoying itself by doing so.

4.What can we infer(推断) from the passage?

A. The crow didn’t know flying.

B. Flying skills were useless.

C. The swan saved the crow because they were good friends.

D. The swan was better at long-distance flying than the crow.

5.What does the story tell us?

A. No pains, no gains.                            B. The early bird catches the worm.

C. Pride goes before a fall.                  D. Practice makes perfect.