When my father was dying, I traveled a thousand miles from home to be with him in his last days. It was far more heartbreaking than I’d expected, one of the most difficult and painful times in my life. After he passed away I stayed alone in his apartment. There were so many things to deal with. It all seemed endless. I was lonely. I hated the silence of the apartment.
But one evening the silence was broken: I heard crying outside. I opened the door to find a little cat on the steps. He was thin and poor. He looked the way I felt. I brought him inside and gave him a can of fish. He ate it and then almost immediately fell sound asleep.
The next morning I checked with neighbors and learned that the cat had been abandoned by his owner who’s moved out. So the little cat was there all alone, just like I was. As I walked back to the apartment, I tried to figure out what to do with him. Having something else to take care of seemed like the very last thing I needed. But as soon as I opened the apartment door he came running and jumped into my arms. It was clear from that moment that he had no intention of going anywhere. I started calling him Willis, in honor of my father’s best friend.
From then on, things grew easier. With Willis in my lap time seemed to pass much more quickly. When the time finally came for me to return home I had to decide what to do about Willis. There was absolutely no way I would leave without him.
It’s now been five years since my father died. Over the years, several people have commented on how nice it was of me to rescue the cat. But I know that we rescued each other. I may have given him a home but he gave me something greater.
小题1: When the author first saw the cat, she_____________.

A．was very happy	B．felt sympathy for him
C．didn’t know what to do	D．was angry with his crying

小题2: The underlined sentence in the third paragraph implies that the author___________.

A．needed something to fill the empty apartment

B．was too busy and tired to keep a cat

C．loved to stay alone in the apartment

D．needed something to take care of to kill time

小题3: The cat rescued the author by ____________.

A．making her feel better in her hard times

B．giving her courage to go on with her life

C．helping her tidy the department

D．telling her what life is

小题4: We can learn form the passage that _________.

A．Willis was named after his previous owner

B．Willis didn’t like staying in the apartment

C．the author and Willis were both homeless

D．time passed quickly after the author adopted Willis

小题5: What’s the best title for the passage?

A．A little cat	B．A painful experience
C．How to take care of animals	D．What I got from a little cat

Few of us haven’t read Cinderella, the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone’s heart—we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity(默默无闻).
Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is featured in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school.
Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenager pop singer, Joey Parker, appears.
Joey is everything the rest of the boys in her class are not—kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey’s paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl of his dreams. Of course, there is a wicked(邪恶的) stepmother, who turns out to be Dominique Blatt and she takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn’t get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey falling for Mary, even if that means embarrassing her.
The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is also a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies.
“The movie takes the Cinderella fairytale as its jumping off point,” writes movie critic Amber Wilkinson. “The focus is firmly on following your dream.”
小题1:The first paragraph is mainly to ____________.

A．build interest and lead us to Mary’s secret dream

B．remind us why Cinderella is popular all the years

C．inform us of the main topic of the whole passage

D．tell us how interesting the fairy tale Cinderella is

小题2:In the movie, Mary Santiago is the main character who _____________.

A．is brave in expressing her love

B．is attended badly by the stepmother

C．has a dream of meeting a prince

D．is embarrassed by the pop singer

小题3: What can we infer from the passage?

A．Joey is just like other boys in Mary’s class.

B．Mary’s mother influences her a lot in singing.

C．Not many people have a dream to be realized.

D．The MP3 player helps Joey in finding Mary.

小题4:The passage is mainly about ___________.

A．an introduction to a film

B．a review about a film

C．an essay about dreams

D．an advertisement of Cinderella

小题5:According to the passage, Another Cinderella Story ________.

A．follows Cinderella with nothing new

B．pays more attention to the looks of the actors

C．encourages young people to follow their dreams

D．focuses more on materialism than other films

A trip to the bookstore with my granddaughter is always a big event. She __36__ in it for hours, touching the books, running her hands over the covers, looking at a few ___37___ here and looking at a few pages there.
I never ___38__ the full importance my five-year-old Grand Angel placed on these trips, until the day I suggested she pick the book she liked best, __39____ we could go home for dinner. Her response（答复） was __40___.
“But Grammy, I ___41___ them all the best. All the covers are be-yoo-tiful and all the pictures are bee-yoo-tiful and they’re all __42___. Just like people. Remember when you told me about people?”
I most certainly __43___ when I told her about people. I had explained that we are all __44___ in our own different way. Each of us has a story to ___45___ and no two stories are similar. We learn by ____46__ our stories and listening to the stories of others. Difference is the thing that makes each and every one of us __47___. I had no idea that she’d connected the lesson with ___48___. Actually, no one book was ___49___ than any other book. They were equally beautiful and equally special(特别的).
With dinner still ___50___ and our stomachs beginning to make noise, ___51___ time was finally at hand. But how to choose? I suddenly ___52___ the right question when I asked, “Which book wants to go home the most with you today?” After a short moment of ___53___, her eyes lit up. She ran to a specific book and ___54___ it from its place on the shelf. The main __55____ was the picture on the cover, a turtle with sad eyes. “We need to find out why the turtle is sad,” she said.

小题1:	A．reason B．act C．question D．problem

I had been rather proud of myself when my friends and family got the ticket, whether it was for speeding, parking or stop sign violations(违反). It was something that happened to others. But last Friday I joined the club.
I was asked to do a new project last week. On Friday morning on my way to work, I suddenly remembered that I had spent the past six weeks without considering that I had a week’s vacation planned during that time. I was very disappointed with myself for not remembering it.
The truth is that I was not paying enough attention to my driving and I did not come to a complete stop at the stop sign in front of a school. I was so distracted(思想不集中的) that I didn’t even notice I had a policeman on my tail with his lights flashing. Finally I looked in my mirror and caught on.
The policeman was rude and took my papers. Luckily, I had everything up to date and since I had never had a ticket before, there was nothing for him to do but write me a ticket. While I was sitting there in the seat of “shame”, I felt bad. If I had been that distracted and a child had run onto the road, perhaps I would have not reacted as well as I could have. It was a wake-up call.
People at work asked me if I tried to talk my way out of it. Frankly, it never occurred to me. I felt guilty（有罪的）. Now I no longer have a clean driving record. Please be careful out there, as a moment’s distraction can lead to tragedy（悲剧）.
小题1:What is this passage mainly about?

A．The writer’s most unforgettable experience.

B．How the writer got her first ticket.

C．An accident caused by the writer.

D．Why the writer is always so careful.

小题2:We can infer that the underlined part “the club” in Paragraph 1 here refers to         .

A．people who are crazy about driving cars

B．a club for drivers without much experience

C．people who get tickets for breaking traffic rules

D．a club for people to talk about their driving stories

小题3:What made the writer unable to focus on(集中思想) her driving?

A．Planning how to spend the vacation.

B．Thinking of the forgotten vacation.

C．Thinking about her work.

D．Missing her children.

小题4:When the writer received the ticket, she         .

A．felt lucky that she was an experienced driver

B．was so nervous that she shook all over

C．was ashamed of herself for being distracted

D．was worried about being laughed at

Joseph Goldberger was a doctor for the Unite States Public Health Service. In 1912, he began to study a disease that was killing thousands of people in the South. The disease was pellagra(烟酸缺乏病).
Doctor Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people had pellagra. He studied the patients and their families. Most of the people were poor. The doctor came to believe that the disease was not passed from one person to another, but instead had something to do with food.
He received agreement from state officials to test this idea at a prison(监狱). Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual food, mostly corn. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk. Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not.
But some experts refused to accept that poor food caused pellagra. They thought there were other causes.
So Doctor Goldberger put blood(血液) from a person with pellagra into his own body. He even took pills that had blood from pellagra patients. An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger’s wife. None of them got sick. Later, the doctor discovered that a bit of dried brewer’s yeast(酿酒的酵母) each day could prevent pellagra.
Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in 1929. He was 55 years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the true cause of pellagra: having little of the vitamin B.
小题1: How old was Doctor Goldberger when he began to study pellagra?

A．22.

B．30.

C．38.

D．55.

小题2:The underlined part “this idea” (in Paragraph 3) refers to          .

A．the guessing that pellagra had something to do with food

B．a kind of yeast that prevented pellagra

C．pellagra that was easily passed from one person to another

D．a poor food that caused pellagra

小题3: Which is the right order about what Doctor Goldberger did?
a. He did a test on prisoners at a prison.
b. He did the experiments on himself.
c. He came to Mississippi to study the patients and their families.
d. He found poor food was easy to cause pellagra.
e. He discovered a little dried brewer’s yeast every day could prevent pellagra.

A．a, d, c, e, b

B．c, a, d, b, e

C．b, e, c, a, d

D．c, b, e, a, d

小题4: This passage mainly tells us          .

A．Doctor Goldberger’s life

B．something about pellagra

C．Doctor Goldberger’s work experience

D．Doctor Goldberger’s study on pellagra

Everybody may have seen the film “Death on the Nile ( 尼罗河)”, but nobody can imagine that the writer of the story, Agatha Christie, saved a baby in a most unusual way.
In June 1977, a baby girl became seriously ill in Deleville. Doctors there were unable to find out the cause of her illness, so she was sent to a famous hospital in London, where there were many excellent doctors. The baby was so seriously ill that a team of doctors hurried to examine her without delay. The doctors, too, were puzzled by the baby’s illness and they also became discouraged. Just then a nurse asked to speak to them.
“I think the baby is suffering from thallium (铊) poisoning. ” said the nurse. “A few days ago, I read a story ‘A Pale Horse’ written by Agatha Christie. Someone uses thallium poison, and all the symptoms (症状) are written in the book. They are exactly the same as the baby’s.”
“You’re very good at observing things,” said a doctor, “and you may be right. We’ll carry out some tests and find out whether the cause is thallium poisoning or not.”
The tests proved that the baby had indeed been poisoned by thallium. Once they knew the cause, the doctors were able to give her correct treatment. The baby soon got well and was sent back to Deleville. A week later it was reported that the poison might have come from an insecticide (杀虫剂) used in Deleville.
小题1: The baby was sent to a hospital in London because ______.

A．her parents were living in London then

B．the hospitals in Deleville were full at that time

C．doctors in Deleville were not sure about the cause of her illness

D．she was the daughter of a famous doctor in London

小题2: When the baby was first sent to the hospital in London, her illness was considered to be ______
A quite easy to treat      
B. the result of thallium poisoning
C.    a common one            
D. extraordinarily serious
小题3: From this passage it seems that the baby’s illness had something to do with ______.
A a dead writer              B. a harmful substance ( 物质) used to kill pests
C. the water in Deleville    D. a dangerous murderer
小题4: As far as we can tell from the story, Agatha Christie ______.

A．had never met this baby

B．had spent a long time studying the baby’s illness

C．visited the baby both in Deleville and London

D．gave the nurse some advice on the telephone

Lisa was running late. Lisa, 25, had a lot to do at work, plus visitors on the way: her parents were coming in for Thanksgiving from her hometown. But as she hurried down the subway stairs, she started to feel uncomfortably warm. By the time she got to the platform, Lisa felt weak and tired—maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to give blood the night before, she thought. She rested herself against a post close to the tracks.
Several yards away, Frank, 43, and his girlfriend, Jennifer, found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop. They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of buying.
But when he heard the scream, followed by someone yelling, “Oh, my God, she fell in!” Frank didn’t hesitate(犹豫). He jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on the rails. “No! Not you! ”his girlfriend shouted after him.
She was right to be alarmed. By the time Frank reached Lisa, he could feel the tracks shaking and see the light coming. The train was about 20 seconds from the station.
It was hard to lift her. She was just out. But he managed to raise her four feet to the platform(站台) so that bystanders could hold her by the legs and drag her away from the edge. That was where Lisa briefly regained consciousness(知觉), felt herself being pulled along the ground, and saw someone else holding her purse.
Lisa thought she’d been robbed. A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop the blood pouring from her head. And she tried to talk but she couldn’t, and that was when she realized how much pain she was in.
Police and fire officials soon arrived, and Frank told the story to an officer. Jennifer said her boyfriend was calm on their 40-minute train ride downtown - just as he had been seconds after the rescue(营救), which made her think about her reaction at the time. “I saw the train coming and I was thinking he was going to die,” she explained.
小题1:What was the most probable cause for Lisa’s weakness?

A．She had run a long way.	B．She felt hot in the subway.
C．She had done a 1ot of work.	D．She had donated blood the night before.

小题2:Why did Jennifer try to stop her boyfriend?

A．Because they would miss their train.

B．Because he didn’t see the train coming.

C．Because she was sure Lisa was hard to lift.

D．Because she was afraid the train would kill him.

小题3: How did Frank save Lisa?

A．By lifting her to the platform.	B．By helping her rise to her feet.
C．By pulling her along the ground.	D．By dragging her away from the edge.

小题4:When did Lisa become conscious again?

A．When the train was leaving.

B．After she was back on the platform.

C．After the police and fire officials came.

D．When a man was cleaning the blood from her head.

小题5:The passage is intended to _____________

A．warn us of the danger in the subway	B．show us how to save people in the subway
C．tell us about a subway rescue	D．report a traffic accident

In 1971, a young man who grew up very poor was travelling across the country, trying to make a new __36__ for himself. Along the way, he had __37__ run out of money and was forced to spend the night in his car. This    38    until one morning, after a week of sleeping in his car, he walked    39    into a restaurant and ordered a big breakfast.
After eating his first good meal in    40  , he found himself    41  to the waiter, telling him he had lost his    42 . The waiter, who was also the owner, walked    43   the chair where the young man had been sitting. He bent down,   44    a $20 bill that looked    45  it had fallen on the floor and said, “Son, you must have    46  this,” the owner said. The young man couldn’t believe his    47  ! He quickly paid for the breakfast, left a    48 , bought gas with the change, and headed West.
On the way out of town, he began to understand    49  the fellow did. Maybe nobody dropped the money    50  . “Maybe that fellow just knew I was    51  and he helped me in a way that didn’t __52__ me.” Right then he made a promise to help others if he could.
Later, he worked very hard and became a rich man. Now, he lives near Kansas City. Each year he    53   thousands of dollars. He is known as the “Secret Santa” because at   54  time each year, he personally hands money out to those on the streets and at hospitals. “I’ve lived the story, so I know it certainly more blessed（带来快乐的） to give than to ___55__, because it comes back to you many many times over,” he says. “It restores some faith in humanity.”

小题1:	A．conclusion B．impression C．start D．surprise

小题2:	A．unexpectedly B．completely C．strangely D．necessarily

小题3:	A．continued B．began C．spread D．struggled

小题4:	A．hopefully B．nervously C．carelessly D．excitedly

小题5:	A．hours B．weeks C．years D．months

小题6:	A．turning B．lying C．smiling D．joking

小题7:	A．way B．job C．wallet D．car

小题8:	A．behind B．near C．before D．under

小题9:	A．took out B．picked out C．took up D．picked up

小题10:

A．even if B．as if C．as well D．even so

小题11:

A．placed B．put C．dropped D．removed

小题12:

A．luck B．word C．promise D．action

小题13:

A．message B．note C．mark D．tip

小题14:A. what            B how           C. where              D. that

小题15:

A．after all B．above all C．in all D．at all

小题16:

A．in danger B．in pain C．in trouble D．in charge

小题17:

A．astonish B．embarrass C．interest D．discourage

小题18:

A．gives up B．sends out C．puts away D．gives away

小题19:

A．breakfast B．Christmas C．church D．New Year

小题20:

A．steal B．provide C．receive D．rob

No one in the United States could forget the sorrowful story, April 14th, 1865 36 Abraham Lincoln was murdered.
The night after a very busy  37 , the President and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C where a new play was to be put on.
Near the theatre  38  a 25-year-old unsuccessful actor named John Wilkes Booth, who was strongly against the North though he hadn’t fought  39 the South himself. As the play  40  after a moment of rest, Booth came into the theatre. He walked slowly and quietly  41  the door through which he could see the President’s  42. He looked  43  carefully so as to find the guards  44  task was to protect the President from the enemy. To his joy, there was none of  45  and nobody noticed him. He reached the door quickly and began to get hold of the gun  46  in his pocket.
It was quiet in the theatre and everyone 47  his eyes on the stage. Suddenly a terrible sound of  48  broke in on the play. It surprised everyone and soon they looked  49  where the sound had just come .Smoke was seen coming out of the President’s box, where the  50  had enjoyed the play. Right away the theatre was full of shouting and excited people. Soldiers hurried in to  _51  the building, but it was too  52 ! The murderer had already  53  from the box onto the stage, from which then he hurriedly ran out of the theatre and soon disappeared in the  54_.
The news came that Lincoln, whom the people had  55  to love as an inspiring leader and a wise, warm-hearted, honest man, was short in the chest and died early the next morning.

小题1:	A．as B．where C．when D．how

小题2:	A．time B．work C．day D．hour

小题3:	A．lived B．stayed C．stood D．worked

小题4:	A．against B．with C．for D．under

小题5:	A．stopped B．started C．lasted D．ended

小题6:	A．towards B．into C．up D．over

小题7:	A．face B．wife C．box D．hat

小题8:	A．around B．behind C．back D．forward

小题9:	A．which B．whose C．that D．their

小题10:

A．guards B．them C．people D．soldiers

小题11:

A．hidden B．put C．kept D．lain

小题12:

A．put B．fixed C．made D．fastened

小题13:

A．gun B．cry C．shot D．noise

小题14:

A．at B．up C．down D．to

小题15:

A．wife B．guard C．Lincolns D．President

小题16:

A．search B．enclose C．search for D．looked at

小题17:

A．noisy B．dark C．late D．smoky

小题18:

A．went B．rushed C．run D．jumped

小题19:

A．building B．dark C．crowds D．country

小题20:

A．wanted B．gone C．come D．meant

For almost two months Dominic York, a 23-year-old hairdresser, wandered about hospitals all night, wearing a white coat and pretending he was a doctor. Yesterday he proudly claimed in court that despite his complete lack of medical experience or qualifications, he had saved several people’s lives. He had even been allowed to assist a surgeon during an emergency operation on a patient who was about to die on something she had swallowed.
“I watched one of those TV dramas about a hospital and suddenly I felt like playing one of the roles myself. So I put on a white jacket and a stethoscope (听诊器) and walked around one of the biggest hospital in London. At first I just watched. Once you learn how doctors talk to patients, nurses and others doctors, it’s easy to take people in,” he said.
One of the patients he treated was Laura Kennan. She had been knocked down by a car and fainted. When she came to in hospital, York was standing over her.
“He looked very professional. He told me his name was Doctor Simon. Then he gave me some sort of injection,” she said. And then he suddenly cleared off when a nurse asked who he was. She didn’t think there was anything wrong. “I would never have realized he was a fake if a policewoman hadn’t showed me his photograph a week later. When the policewoman told me who he really was, I could hardly believe my ears.”
Judge Raymond Adams told York that he was. “ shocked and horrified” that he got away with his deceiving for so long, and then sentenced him to eighteen months in a special prison for criminal with mental disorders.
“I can only hope that this will not lead to further problems. After all, you will have considerable opportunity to study the behaviour of the psychiatrists(精神科医生)who will look after you while you are there. If you try to persuade people that you yourself are a psychiatrist after you are set free, I shall make sure that you are given a much longer sentence.” Judge Adams warned York.
小题1:York was proud of the fact that ___________.

A．a surgeon let him watch an operation.

B．he could perform some duties of a doctor.

C．he had cheated doctors for so long

D．people thought he could become a real doctor

小题2:York learned how to behave like a doctor by __________.

A．watching other doctors work	B．talking to doctors and nurses
C．getting some training and experience	D．observing doctors while he was a patient

小题3:Why was Laura Kennan in hospital?

A．She had swallowed something and almost died.

B．She had to have and emergency operation.

C．She had been injured in a road accident.

D．She had lost consciousness while driving.

小题4:The judge’s remark implied that York would be more severely punished if he _________.

A．pretended to be a psychiatrist	B．tried to get away from prison
C．was proud of what he had done	D．studied the behaviour of the psychiatrist