The Reading Club meets in the library after school. We read and talk a___86____ English story books. It is a lot of fun. I tell the o____87___ students about good books. Then, they tell me about their f____88___ books. We also learn about new books and choose what we want to r____89__ next. We can read books alone, or we can listen to recordings of storybooks on CDs. I like l____90____ to stories on CD. I can hear many d___91____ voices and sounds. This h___92____ me speak and understand English.

S____93_____ we read books in pairs. Students in Grade 9 help me read difficult books. They tell me what the words mean and help me understand. This is very h___94____. I like to learn f____95___ the older students.

 

In most languages, a greeting is usually followed by “small talk”. Small talk means the little things we talk about at the start of a conversation.
In English-speaking countries people often make small talk about the weather: “Nice day, isn’t it?” “Terrible weather, isn’t it?” But there is something special about small talk. It must be about something which both people have the same opinion about. The purpose of small talk is to let both people agree on something. This makes meeting people easier and more comfortable. People usually agree about the weather, so it is a safe topic for small talk. But people often disagree about religion or politics so these are not suitable topics for small talk in English. The topics for small talk also depend on where the conversation is taking place. At football matches, people make small talk about the game they are watching: “Great game, isn’t it?” At bus stops, people may comment about the transport system: “The bus service is terrible, isn’t it?”
Greetings and small talk are an important part of conversation in any language. The way people great each and the things they talk about, however, may be different from one language to another. This shows that there is much more to learn when we learn a language than just the vocabulary and the grammar of the language. We also have to learn the social behavior of the people who speak it.
【小题1】Small talk ___.

A．is a kind of conversation with short words

B．is a greeting when people meet each other

C．is to let people disagree about something

D．is something we talk about to start a conversation

【小题2】The best topic of small talk is about ___.

A．the weather

B．politics

C．Games

D．languages

【小题3】The passage suggests that when we learn a language ___.

A．we should learn about the transport system of the country

B．we should only master the grammar and vocabulary

C．we should know the culture about the country

D．we should grasp the importance of the language

【小题4】When we say “Great game, isn’t it?” we in fact___.

A．ask a question	B．have a conversation
C．greet each other	D．begin a small talk

【小题5】What we learn from the passage is that ___.

A．different language has different grammar

B．small talk is an important part in a language

C．small talk depends on the purpose of the conversation

D．in English-speaking countries we should talk about the weather.

完型填空（共15小题，计15分）

Benjamin was  1 . He didn't know why. He was having a fever and tired and didn’t feel like eating. His stomach hurt from time to time. At first he paid very little  2 to it, thinking he would be all right in  3. But he didn't. After three weeks, he had to go to Dr. Barkley.

The doctor did a few  4 . Then he asked Benjamin if he had gone  5 and drunk dirty water. Benjamin said he hadn't been camping since he was a soldier in the army.

He asked if Benjamin had eaten at any fast food restaurants in the past month, or eaten from one of the  6 lunch trucks in the Los Angeles area. Benjamin said that he ate fast food or lunch truck food every day at noon.

“That’s probably the  7 of your illness. You have hepatitis(肝炎) A, and you most likely got it from a food worker who didn't wash his hands thoroughly after using the  8. It happens a lot.” “God! I'm not going to die, am I?”

The doctor told him not to   9 . A viral infection（病毒感染） that  10 the liver（肝脏）, hepatitis A kills only about 100 people every year in the US. He told Benjamin to see him every two weeks, and to be  11 to take three months  12 from work so that he could rest, rest, rest. There is no  13 to hepatitis A. You survive(存活), or you don’t.

“But there is one good thing about hepatitis A,” Dr. Barkley said. “  14 you get it, you’re immune（免疫） to it for the  15 of your life.”

1.                A．energetic       B．sleepy          C．sick  D．tired

 

2.                A．money         B．dollars          C．attention  D．focus

 

3.                A．a week         B．a month        C．two months    D．a year

 

4.                A．chores         B．tests           C．seconds  D．movements

 

5.                A．fishing         B．camping        C．hiking    D．sightseeing

 

6.                A．a lot           B．a little          C．many D．much

 

7.                A．resource       B．cause          C．research  D．search

 

8.                A．knief           B．cookers         C．restroom D．microwave oven

 

9.                A．think           B．eat            C．worry    D．cry

 

10.               A．hurts          B．breaks         C．kills  D．removes

 

11.               A．OK            B．ready          C．necessary  D．relaxing

 

12.               A．away          B．to             C．off   D．getting

 

13.               A．solution        B．answer         C．hope D．need

 

14.               A．Unless         B．Until           C．Once D．Twice

 

15.               A．other          B．rest           C．whole D．part

 

 

－Can you _______ English?      

－Yes, only _________

A．talk, a little

B．say, little

C．speak, a little

D．tell, little

 

Questionnaire Read the questions and answer Yes or No , then you will find out how good you are. 1.  When you don’t understand something, you ask questions. 2.  You like listening to older people talk about the past. 3.  You think that you can learn something interesting from everyone around you. 4.  You are brave enough when you have to talk to people you don’t know. 5.  You enjoy reading books about famous people. 6.  You always see and talk to different people. 7.  You are interested in learning new ways of doing things. 8.  You enjoy sharing experiences with friends and learning from people of all ages. 9.  You talk a lot about yourself. 10. Even if you are often wrong, you make your own decisions. 11. You hate teaching what you are good at: sports, technology, whatever. 12. Your parents don’t understand you, so you don’t talk to them much.

SCORE NOW! Score 2 points if you answer YES to each of the first 8 questions, and 0 if you choose NO. Score 2 points if you answer NO to each of the last 4 questions, and 0 if you choose Yes. 18-24 You are friendly and open-minded. You make people feel important by listening to what they have to say. You’ll probably succeed in learning all kinds of interesting things. Good for you! 10-16 Remember that every single person you know can teach you something. You will greatly make your life rich and colorful. 0-8 About 400 years ago, a famous writer wrote , “No man is an island.” This is still true today. Try to be more open and interested in people around you.

【小题1】If you say “YES” to all these questions , you’ll get ______ points.

A．12

B．16

C．20

D．24

【小题2】The writer thinks you should ______.

A．always see and talk to the same people.

B．make your own decision whenever you want

C．enjoy teaching what you are good at

D．talk much about yourself when possible

【小题3】“ No man is an island”. In the text probably means that _______.

A．the famous writer was very clever	B．everything is the same as 400 years ago
C．you will feel lonely if on an island	D．you can not live alone in the world

【小题4】The questions are used to test whether you are willing to ______.

A．learn from others

B．help other people

C．do all by yourself

D．depend on others