A boy called Mario had many friends, and he was proud of it. Whoever he met, he would like to show off(炫耀) how popular he was at school.
One day, his grandpa said to him, “Mario, I know that you don’t have as many friends as you think. Many of them are not true to you.”
Mario thought maybe his grandpa was right. However, he wasn’t sure how he could test whether his schoolmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandpa. The old man answered, “I have just exactly what you need. It’s in my room. Wait a minute.” The old man left, soon returning as if(好像) carrying something in his hand, but Mario could see nothing there.
“Take it. It’s a very special chair. Because it’s invisible, it will be hard for you to sit on it. However, if you manage to sit on it, you can use the chair’s magic power（力量） to tell who your real friends are.”
Mario took the strange invisible chair to school. At break time he asked everyone to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair.
“Nobody move. You’re about to see something amazing，” said Mario. Then he tried sitting on the chair. Having difficulty seeing it, he missed and fell to the ground. Everyone had a pretty good laugh. “Wait, wait,” said Mario, making another try. But again he missed the seat.
Mario didn’t give up. He kept trying to sit on the magic chair. Finally, he did it. This time he felt himself in mid-air.
Then he experienced the magic that his grandpa had been talking about. Looking around, Mario saw George, Lucas and Diana holding him up, so he wouldn’t fall. But some schoolmates whom he had regarded as friends had done nothing but made fun of him. Mario was quite thankful to his grandpa, who helped him test who his true friends were.
【小题1】Mario’s grandpa gave him a special chair to _____.

A)请阅读下面短文，根据短文内容从每小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项                              

A

1 How much are the musical tickets for two children?

A. 16 pounds,      B, 35 pounds.      C. 30 pounds.      D. 40 pounds.

2When will the Teenage Drawing Competition be held?

A. On June 7th.                        B. On August 6th.

C. On September 20th.             D. On April 25th.

3 Where can you watch Adele's performance this Sunday afternoon?

A. At St. James' s Park.                 B. At Westfield Theater.

C. At Westfield Shopping Center.        D. At Cambridge Theater.

B

     When I crossed a small road on my first day in Kolkata, I was surprised because I heard a bell-not a horn (喇叭),  It was a tiny man pulling a rickshaw, He stopped and picked up two children from the front door of their house and pulled them to school. For many people, the rickshaw in Kolkata has many advantages, When the traffic is bad, rickshaws find a way through the traffic. If your miss your bus and there aren't any taxis, you can always find a rickshaw in Kolkata. Rickshaws are from your house to the market and waits for you. Then he loads (装载)all your things, drops you off outside your home and helps you unload, No other type of public transport offers this kind of service.

    From June to September, Kolkata gets heavy rain. Sometimes it rains for 48 hours without a break. In some parts of the city, the roads flood (水淹), and anything with an engine(发动机) is useless, But the rickshaw drivers never stop working, even with water all around them.

    But not everyone thinks rickshaws are a good thing. The local government want to ban rickshaws. They believe it is wrong for one man to pull another person when there is modern transport in the city. However, there is a problem with this plan. Many of the rickshaw drivers come from the countryside. The only job they can find in Kolkata is pulling a rickshaw, If the city bans rickshaws, these men won't have a job. So for the moment, the people of Kolkata still go by rickshaw.

   4What is the main idea of Paragraph 1?

    A. The rickshaw drivers carry things for local people in Kolkata.

    B. Parents need rickshaws for taking children to school in Kolkata.

    C. Rickshaws can find a way through the bad traffic in Kolkata.

    D. Rickshaws are very useful for the people' s daily life in Kolkata.

  5 What does the underlined word "ban" mean?

    A. make       B. increase     C. forbid      D. collect

  6What can we learn from the passage?

    A. The rickshaws in Kolkata have loud horns.

    B. The rickshaw is still a part of public transport in Kolkata.

    C. The local government offer many other jobs to the rickshaw driven.

D. The people in Kolkata are supposed to take rickshaws instead of cars.

                               C

     Nathan Sawaya's childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and played with plastic toy bricks (积木). His grandparents bought his first set of toy bricks when he was five years old and he's been building with toy bricks ever since. He even took his building bricks to college with him! Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village made of bricks on his desk.

     Nathan started as a lawyer but gave up His highly-paid (高薪的) job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty(自由女神像) to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his working room in New York which he uses to make pieces of art. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait (自画像). It took him two days just to build the eyes.

     Nathan's work has appeared in museums around the world. Children love his art because it is made out of the same toys that they play with at home and adults love his work because it is fascinating. Since it began in2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular with museum visitors everywhere.

     "I'm proud that I took a dream I had as a child, to become an artist, and I have actually made a job out of it," says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is the most important thing."

   7What did Nathan put on his desk at college?

    A. The Statue of Liberty.

    B. Superman.

    C. His serf-portrait.

    D. A Greenwich Village modal.

  8Why did Nathan give up his job as a lawyer?

    A. Because he made little money out of a lawyer.

    B. Because he wanted to make toys for the children.

    C. Because he decided to become an artist of toy bricks.

    D. Because he was going to work in the museum instead.

  9What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

    A. Nathan's work.                 B. Nathan's exhibition.

    C. Nathan's art.                   D. Nathan's self-portrait

   10 What would be the best title for the passage?

    A. The Brick Artist                B. The Brick Exhibition

C. Toy Bricks for Adults           D. The Artist's Childhood

People often say that the Englishman’s home is his castle.They mean that the home is very important and personal to him.Most people in Britain live in houses rather than flats,and many people own their homes.This means that they can make them individual（个体的）;they can paint them,and change them in any way they like.Most house have a garden,even if it is a very small one,and the garden is usually loved.The house and the garden are the private（私人的）space of the individual.

People usually like to mark their space.Are you sitting now in your home or on a train? Have you marked the space around yourself as yours?If you are on the train,you may put your coat or small bag on the seat beside you.If you share a flat, you may have one corner or chair which is your own.

Once I was traveling on a train to London.I was in a section for four people and there was a table between us .The man on the space on my side of the table at all. I was angry.Maybe he thought that he owned the whole table.I had read a book about non-verbal communication,so I took various papers out of my bag an　　　　 d put them on his briefcase!When I did this he stiffened and his eyes nearly popped(瞪出)out of his head.I had invaded(侵犯)his space!A few minutes later I took my papers off his case in order to read them.He immediately moved his case to his side of the table.Of course,it is possible that he just wanted to be helpful to me!

If you are visiting another country you may feel that you don’t have any private space.Hotel rooms look much the same in every country in the world. All day long ,you share public spaces with other people.You see the local people in their private spaces and you feel lonely and “outside”.Local people can create their private spaces by talking about things you don’t know about .And you even feel that they like you to be outside them so that they will enjoy being inside even more!This is one of the difficulties of being a traveler!But if you understand it then it helps you .Haven’t you enjoyed being part of a group and “owning”a bit of space?

( )56.The writer was angry as he was traveling on a train to London

　　　 Because 　　　　 .

A.he had no place to sit

B.someone had invaded his “space”

C.too many people shared a section with him

D.some other people talked about things he didn't know about

( )57.“… you feel lonely and‘outside’”in paragraph 4 means that_____.

A.you are alone outside the house

B.you feel lonely because you travel on your own

C.you are alone and therefore you go outside to have some fun

D.you feel lonely and you don’t belong to that place or that group

　 of people

( )58.In Paragraph 4 ,the pronoun “them”refers to（所指） “_________”.

A.public spaces 　 　　　 B.private spaces　　　　　

C.local people　　 　 　　　 D.other countries

( )59.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

　 A.British people dislike marking their space.

　 B.You always feel at home in another country.　

　 C.Most British people prefer living in houses to flats.

　 D.You can’t mark your private space in a foreign country.

( )60.The main purpose of the passage is to tell readers to _______.

　 A.own private spaces by living in houses

　 B.have one corner of their own in public places

　 C.realize the importance of “space”in communication

D.create their private spaces by talking with local people