I chose to study in Madrid because I had a desire to learn Spanish. My first impressions of Madrid were incredible. It was before the New Year that I arrived in Madrid for the first time. While traveling to my Spanish friend’s house in a taxi, I appreciated the buildings along the road which were different from those of my own country.
There are an incredible number of restaurants and bars from all over the world. If you are really into sightseeing, I hope you have rechargeable batteries for your digital camera, because one week really isn’t enough time to see everything here including a number of art, science, and historical museums as well as parks, buildings, and amazing landscapes.
What I liked best about life in Madrid was the fact that if you were frustrated with schoolwork and wanted to have some fun, you can easily go out. The nightlife never seems to stop and the people are all very friendly. You can meet people and practice Spanish while having fun at the same time.
What I liked least was the fact that many people smoked in the streets. Also, coming from the US, I was used to having a big breakfast every morning, but while living with an actual Spanish family, I wasn’t really satisfied with the food in the morning.
I think I have definitely become more independent since I came back from Spain. Living in a big city like Madrid I found that it is necessary to plan ahead and to make a schedule for future. There is so much to see, not just in the Spanish World, but in the European World as well.
【小题1】 What’s the purpose of the text?

When 19-year-old Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation (基金会)，nobody understood what she was talking about .But Sophia knew just how important Make – A –Wish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one her best friends .We were interested in finding out more ,so we went along to meet Sophia listen to what she had to say .
Sophia told us that Make – A –Wish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980.”It’s a charity(慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. Make – A –Wish help children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true ,” Sophia explained .
We asked Sophia how Make – A –Wish had first started .She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris ,who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman .Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris’s dream come true ----so, with everybody’s help , Chris, only seven years old at the time ,had been a “policeman” for a day .” when people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too ,and that was the beginning of Make – A –Wish,” explained Sophia
Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A Make-A-Wish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.
【小题1】Sophia found out about Make-A-Wish because her best friend had   .

As a teenager, Simon Weston wasn’t particularly good at his studies, but he was a good football player. He could also be naughty sometimes so his mother decided Simon should join the army when he was sixteen to teach him some discipline(纪律).
She was right; Simon really enjoyed army life and became a well-respected member. However, Simon’s life was changed forever in 1982. Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, which belong to Britain, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war(宣战). Simon was on board a ship taking troops to the Falklands when it was attacked and set on fire. In an act of great heroism, Simon tried to save one of his friends from being burnt alive. Sadly, he failed and was seriously burnt himself. At the age of 21, Simon’s life seemed over.
Simon had 70 operations to rebuild his face and body. He was so badly burnt that his mother walked past him in the hospital without recognizing her son. Simon struggled to call out, “Mum, it’s me, Simon.” Hearing his voice, his mother broke down in tears. Many thought Simon would die, but to everyone’s astonishment, he survived. Although he experienced terrible pain, Simon never gave up hope. After months of treatment, Simon slowly started to recover and, although he would be terribly scarred for the rest of his life, he was able to leave hospital.
This was when the real battle started. The physical pain slowly disappeared; however, the emotional pain became worse. Simon started to gout but was wounded by the stares of people who looked at him like he was some kind of freak(畸形的人). He felt like saying, “I wasn’t born like this you know. I was injured defending my country.” It took great courage for Simon to continue to go out.
Eventually, Simon became involved in charity work and met his wife Lucy with whom he has three children. Life has never been the same for Simon but his Bravery is an example to us all.
【小题1】Simon’s mother wanted him to join the army because ________.

As a first –year teacher at a Christian school ,I was expecting my fifth grade students to be prefect , perfect in behavior , in attitude , and I even expected the home-life of each student to be nearly perfect . I found , of course , that these students were not different from the children I taught in public school .These kids had behavior problems , bad attitudes ,and some even had strikingly difficult family lives .
One of my students in particular stands out in my mind .I’ll call him Timothy for safety’s sake. During the first day of class , I noticed that Timothy was different .Not only in physical appearance , but he also spoke strangely , as though a 35-year-old man were trapped inside his tiny , weak body .On many occasions , I heard Timothy speak of hate, how he hated his family .
I observed Timohy for several months and read up on his background and searched for any clue that would lead me closer to understanding this child’s strange behavior .Finally I was directed to Timothy’s older brother’s cheating in an exam and had taken his anger out on Timothy at home .Timothy’s parents , in turn , had contacted the school, blaming them for Timothy’s problems.
I had written a letter to the administration asking that Timothy see a counselor(咨询师). The school was in the process of contacting a counselor when Timothy was transferred to another school. His father hurried around my room collecting Timothy’s things and left. That is the last we have seen or heard from Timothy. I was left with an empty desk and a broken heart. I cried for days afterwards. I felt as though I had done Timothy a disservice …I did not help him when he needed me. I still think about Timothy every day, and pray for him every morning.
【小题1】 What was wrong with Timothy?

Born on April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou had a hard childhood. Her parents got divorced(离婚) when she was very young. She was a single mother and being a single mother was very hard on her.
It was finally in 1949 that she started to find her place in the world when she changed her name to show her Calypso dance performances at the night club where she worked. It was there that she won a scholarship and trained in African dance and modern dance. She formed a group and they traveled all over Europe with an opera production. As she traveled, she studied different languages and became excellent in several of them. During this time, she made her first album, Miss Calypso, and it was a success.
In the 1950s, she moved to New York and started to work more on her writing. She heard Dr Martin Luther King speak in 1960 and began organizing different benefits for Civil Rights(人权). In 1961, she began to play a large role in the Civil Rights Movement and is remembered for her work around the country.
She later moved to Ghana with her son and worked in the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama. It was there that she became close friends with Malcolm X. She returned to the US in 1964 to help Malcolm X with a new Civil Rights movement. Shortly after she returned to the US, Malcolm X and Dr King were both assassinated(暗杀). To deal with the deaths of her friends, she wrote her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which finally made her famous around the world. The 1970s were some of her most productive years as a writer, poet, as well as a singer.
【小题1】What’s the main idea of this passage?

Baseball (棒球) Match
Mr. Jenkins works in a middle school. There he teaches his students English. He works hard and is very busy. After supper, when his family watch TV, he always reads some newspapers in his room. At times Robert comes in and asks him to tell him a story. He likes his little son and does all what the boy wants.
One Sunday Mrs. Jenkins was doing some housework and Mr. Jenkins was reading a newspaper.
Robert came in but he didn’t say anything. About ten minutes later the boy showed a newspaper to him and called out, “There will be a baseball match tonight, Dad!”
Mr. Jenkins was surprised. He said to himself, “The boy is only three years old. How can he read the newspaper?”
He held up the newspaper and began to look for the news. But he couldn’t find it. At last the boy showed him an exclamation mark on the newspaper.
【小题1】Mr. Jenkins is a ______.

I had been playing hockey（冰球）for about 10 years. I was always the one sitting at the end of the bench, and   36  got into a game. I went to all the   37  and showed up even when it was so   38  that your ‘breath froze’ and when the otherplayers had decided to stay home. I felt I had   39  enough and thought of quitting.
I finally decided to   40  the news to my mom that I was leaving the team. My mom may have looked like a tiny and quiet lady but on   41  my words, she said, “Remember, ‘A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.’ Your mother didn’t raise   42  , so think about yourself in a   43  way and see yourself as a winner!” So I worked harder than ever at getting in better shape,   44  my shot（投球） accuracy and changing my   45  . 
Once in a match, we   46  our first game badly. What’s worse, one of our best players got hurt. I was sitting at my  47  place, at the end of the bench, when the coach came over and told me I was going   48  . I was nervous, excited and terrified all at the same time.
The opposing team was fast and I had to admit I was a little   49  .  But my mom’s words   50  out in my head like a church bell. Instead of being afraid, I was “pumped” and I very quickly found that all my   51  work was paying off.  I was as fast a skater as anyone else on the ice, and I seemed to get the   52  to score. The crowd went quiet.  All the time I spent on the ice when everyone had gone home had  53  me for this moment.
Won! I won!
The lesson I learned from my mom’s   54  has stayed with me over the years. I hear them whenever I am faced with a challenge, or whenever I   55  myself.  

That afternoon I was sitting at my favorite table in a restaurant, waiting for the food I had ordered to arrive. Suddenly I ______ that a man sitting at a table near the window kept glancing in my direction, ______ he knew me. The man had a newspaper ______ in front of him, which he was ______ to read, but I could ______ that he was keeping an eye on me. When the waiter brought my ______the man was clearly puzzled (困惑) by the ______ way in which the waiter and I ______each other. He seemed even more puzzled as ______went on and it became ______that all the waiters in the restaurant knew me. Finally he got up and went into the ______. When he came out, he paid his bill and ______without another glance in my direction.
I called the owner of the restaurant and asked what the man had ______. “Well,” he said, “that man was a detective (侦探). He ______ you here because he thought you were the man he ______. ” “What? ” I said, showing my ______. The owner continued, “He came into the kitchen and showed me a photo of the wanted man. I ______ say he looked very much like you! Of course, since we know you, we told him that he had made a ______. ” “Well, it’s really ______I came to a restaurant where I’m known, ” I said. “______, I might have been in trouble.”

When I was little, my mother sold flowers at Camden Market in London, She couldn't leave me at home on my own, so I had to go to the market with her. As I grew older, I began to give my mom a hand and I really enjoyed it.
Things changed when I was 14. My grandma gave me a book for Christmas, which was all about making candles . I loved it so much that I spent all my free time making candles of all shapes and sizes. I made hundreds of them.
One day, my mother was ill so I had to go to the market on my own. I decided to take some candles with me and see if I could sell them. To my surprise, they were sold out in 20 minutes! The next week, my mom gave me some money to buy some wax (蜡) to make more candles. They sold out really quickly, too.
Nine months later, we decided to stop selling flowers. My mom and I couldn't make enough candles during the week, so some of my school friends started to help us. I paid them one pound for every candle, and we used to sell them for three or four times that. It was fun. and my friends worked with me in the market.
When I was 22, my uncle lent me some money and I opened my first shop on Portobello Road. Since then, I've never looked back, even in difficult times. At the first store, we only sold candles, but now we sell everything from designing furniture to paintings.
【小题1】The sentence "I began to give my mom a hand" means"          ".