第一部分阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
A
Dear Santa,
What do I ask this year？ I have read each ad carefully in my mailbox, and looked through the colorful ads in the newspaper. There are so many lovely things, but I need nothing.
I realize this as I walk up the hill on my strong legs. I can hear the air fill my lungs. I feel the cold on my cheeks. I smell the smoke of the fire that warms my home. I see the snow-covered mountains and the small river dotted with fat geese.
I need nothing. There are people who love me. There are people who forgive my sometimes bad temper and who touch me with loving hands. There are neighbors who smile in the store. There are shopkeepers who tolerate me when I don’t have enough money. There are kind faces in public places.
There is a fat cat who often slides into my garage. Dogs and other cats share my hearth（炉床）; I love to feel their fur with my feet. There are hawks that teach their young how to fly, right there behind my house. There are deer that wander into my yard and smell apples.
Green beans, tomatoes, peas and carrots color my kitchen. And a full bucket （桶） of hand tools and neatly dried seeds promise next year’s rich harvest. I need nothing.
Today I discovered a hole in my jeans. I felt the December air flow down my leg. How powerful the hand is that sweeps the wind along the mountains! Santa, dear old soul, just give me another day like this one in my life.
1. The author has read each ad in his mailbox in order to .
A. find something as a present for himself
B. find something as a present for his kids
C. get the news about vegetable prices
D. get the news about pet animals
2. What’s the author’s attitude towards life？
A. Uncertain.
B. Anxious.
C. Hopeful.
D. Dissatisfied.
3. We can learn from the text that the author .
A. is very old and in bad health
B. lives alone and has few friends
C. is too poor to pay for good clothes
D. may live close to mountains and rivers
B
I want to become a journalist and I wonder what makes a good journalist. In order to find the answer, I talked to Mary Harte who worked with the BBC for over 20 years as a journalist.
“You’ve got to have the interest. If you don’t like it, you will not persist because journalism is a very difficul t job,” Mary said.
Out of experience Mary told me that it was very important for a journalist to watch and talk to people. She said, “What a journalist does is painting a little picture of a story. The information has to be accurate. Therefore, you really have to be watching and listening.”
Mary also emphasized（强调）the importance of experience. “It is important to collect as many skills as possible to be able to stand out of the crowd. A lot of the skills come from experience, so you won’t walk in the str eet and be a good journalist. You will be a good
journalist because you’ve done it long enough,” she said.
Mary said, “You will not get a job handed to you. You will have to be prepared to put in long hours; you will have to be prepared to ring people, and you will have to be prepared to have no money for quite a while. In a word, you will have to work hard for it. Then it gets to the stage where you love your job and you think ‘Why is somebody paying me to do something that I really love？’”
From what an experienced journalist said, I learn that it is not just about the skills, but also the passion required to work in the field of journalism.
4. The underlined part “not persist” in Paragraph 2 can be replaced by “ ”.
A. stay up
B. stand out
C. give up
D. keep up
5. In Paragraph 2, Mary Harte mainly tells us that .
A. being a journalist is interesting
B. journalists will face a lot of difficulties
C. the author must be fond of journalism
D. many people give up journalism
6. According to Paragraph 3, Mary Harte thinks that it is important to .
A. get accurate information through talking and watching
B. watch what other journalists do to make a wonderful story
C. talk to people about how they want their stories to be written
D. add as much information to a story as possible to make it funny
7. By saying “You will not get a job handed to you” in Paragraph 5, Mary Harte means the author .
A. will not become a journalist
B. will have to work hard for the job
C. will not get any help from others
D. will get tired of being a journalist soon
C
Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, Colombia
If in Colombia at the end of February, you should make Cartagena part of your journey —here between December and March every year is the opportunity to get dirty. Bathing in mud from the Volcan de Lodo El Totumo can be best described as a primal（原始的） experience. The volcano is small, looking more like a little hill. If you reach the very top, you’ll discover gray mud. It’s believed that th e mud has a curing effect in cleaning your skin.
La Tomatina, Spain
It’s possibly the most famous food fight in the world. So if you think tomatoes are only for salads, you are on a wrong track. In a small Spanish village named Bunol, on the last Wednesday of August every year, trucks dump（倾倒）about 120 tons of tomatoes in the streets of the town and tomato juice flows from there.
El Dia de los Muertos （Day of the Dead）, Mexico
In early November each year Mexicans gather in cemeteries（墓地） to hold a celebration. That’s a celebration of the dead. People smoke cigars and eat festive foods to show life goes on as they honor those who have died. The idea is based on the belief that the spirits of the dead pay their families a visit on October 31 and stay until November 2.
World Ice Golf Championship, Greenland
For more than 10 years the World Ice Golf Championship has been regarded as the most extreme golf tournament in the world. There golfers take extreme temperatures as their first task to deal with. Then it will take players time and patience to be accustomed（习惯）to orange balls to play with. Determined by weather conditions, the tournament is scheduled for March each year in Greenland.
8. The text is mainly about .
A. interesting holiday centers for travelers
B. some unusual festivals and events
C. strange customs around the world
D. special sports events in Europe
9. Which of the following lasts the longest？
A. Volcan de Lodo El Totumo.
B. World Ice Golf Championship.
C. El Dia de los Muertos.
D. La Tomatina.
10. The most challenging thing for golfers in the World Ice Golf Championship is .
A. to reach Greenland in March
B. to walk on the ice instead of grass
C. to make themselves used to the weather
D. to find the orange balls in the snow
11. El Dia de los Muertos is held in order to .
A. pass their belief to the next generation
B. visit the dead in a special way
C. celebrate the death of others
D. honor their ancestors
D
At 91, Philip Theil lives in a century-old house in Seattle’s University District and that’s the way he wants to keep it. “As far as I’m concerned, I would not like to leave this place. Living in a group is something I couldn’t tolerate. I’d kill myself before I have to do that.” Many elderly Americans, who can no longer manage on their own, spend their final years in a nursing home. However, the vast majority of seniors would prefer to live in their own homes as long as possible.
Theil says he and his wife manage pretty well right now. But the couple can feel their advancing age and realize they will soon need more help with basic household chores, like changing the light bulb at the top of the stairs.
“To change that tube, I have to bring in a stepladder （折梯）and put it partly on the landing and partly on the stairs and climb up,” Theil says. “It’s frightening.” In the old days, the Theils could ask their children to help them. But those young helpers have grown up and gone. “We have kids and we call them sometimes, but one li ves in Munich, Germany, another lives in London and the third lives in New York,” Theil says. “They’re not going to visit us for a weekend.”
So the Theils would like to join a virtual（虚拟的） village, which provides a local network of volunteers helping the elderly people in place. They help seniors with anything from transportation to home repairs and dog walking. The concept came into being in Boston a decade ago and has since grown into a national movement. In most cases, the villages charge a membership （会员）fee from about $100 to more than $1,000 per year. Once you’re a
member, some of the services are free.
12. Theil wants to .
A. live with his children together
B. kill himself before moving out
C. live in his own home for his final years
D. spend the rest of his life in a nursing home
13. The difficulty for the Theils at present is that .
A. the light bulbs in their house always break down
B. they can’t do some household chores easily
C. they can’t take care of themselves at all
D. they miss their children too much
14. What can we learn about Theil’s family？
A. The old couple can’t depend on their kids helping them.
B. Their children all live in foreign countries.
C. Their children are too busy to go home.
D. Theil’s wife can’t manage on herself.
15. According to the text, we learn that .
A. the number of the old people in the US is increasing greatly
B. virtual villages help the old people stay in their own home
C. people often offer help to the old people for free in the US
D. virtual villages have become popular around the world
第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Parents would remember their own first experience of leaving home.
16 In remembering their own experience, parents next have to consider the experience they want to provide their son or daughter with.
This experience of leaving home is important psychologically（精神上地） for children, now young adults, and parents alike. 17
After managing through adolescence （青春期）, parents are faced with the fact that their child is a young adult, and they will not be able to order him or her any longer. 18 Parents have to realize that their child is becoming independent.
Rather than telling their children over and over again that they will be all right, the parents must remind themselves not to let their concerns upset their children. Let them leave in peace and do not try to pour in all the lessons left untaught. 19
Talk with the children about their feelings of leaving home. Share with them about their growing up and the pleasures parents have had along the way.
Don’t focus on whether they will miss you though, as this feeling might actually be your own. 20 It can be difficult to let go of your children, but how you do so will also set the stage for how they may return.
A. Gone are the days of parental authority（权威）.
B. Just tell them the door will be kept open for them.
C. Some lessons are only gained by leaving home.
D. Treasure your children while they are young.
E. For many people it came easily, but for some it came along with stress, even conflict.
F. The experience can determine the style of relationship between parents and children.
G. One really needs a lot of help when living in another place or just being far from your home.
第二部分英语知识运用（共两节，满分45分）
第一节完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
We found him a few weeks ago, walking along the road in a rural area. He was jumping on 21 , and we thought maybe his family was camping somewhere nearby, 22 we passed him by. A few hours later, on our return trip, he was still in the 23 place. When he saw us, he laid down in the middle of the road, so we were 24 to get around him.
We stopped the car and 25 , trying to figure out if anyone was around from whom he was 26 . It didn’t appear so. Then we took a good look at the dog. He had no collar（项圈） and he was really 27 . We thought he was given up by his owner.
My husband said, “If he doesn’t 28 me when I pick him up to put him in the car, then we hav e a new dog.” The dog 29 joined us with no fight at all. He 30 sticking his head between the two front seats and 31 us for picking him up.
The dog was 32 on the road for some time. He was extremely under 33 . He was covered in scars and new 34 . So, we fed him a lot over the next two weeks and he gained over twenty pounds.
We do love this dog. He had no 35 , but he is a quick learner. He no longer 36 to get on the bed, but he does like sitting in one of the folding chairs. We figure he wishes to 37 being underfoot（挡路）when our daughter is dancing about, which she 38 often. She has stepped on him a few times. When that 39 , he simply moves. He does not bare his teeth.
Since then, he has become a（n） 40 of our family.
21. A. walls B. cars C. trees D. ropes
22. A. before B. though C. until D. so
23. A. dirty B. quiet C. same D. small
24. A. lucky B. proud C. sorry D. unable
25. A. looked around B. gave away C. came back D. settled down
26. A. driven B. divided C. carried D. stolen
27. A. thin B. different C. crazy D. curious
28. A. touch B. leave C. bite D. kill
29. A. carefully B. shyly C. nervously D. happily
30. A. imagined B. allowed C. kept D. practiced
31. A. visiting B. encouraging C. praising D. thanking
32. A. clearly B. finally C. also D. still
33. A. cover B. weight C. control D. level
34. A. wounds B. pains C. excuses D. problems
35. A. messages B. manners C. knowledge D. family
36. A. remembers B. learns C. tries D. returns
37. A. start B. advise C. risk D. avoid
38. A. moves B. holds C. does D. chooses
39. A. happens B. begins C. helps D. works
40. A. chance B. member C. honor D. neighbor
第二节（共10小题；每小题1.5分，满分15分）
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
David：It’s a great art show, isn’t it？By the way, I’m David.
Lucy：Nice to meet you, David. My name is Lucy. The art show is very 41 （success）. The paintings on exhibition are beautiful indeed and they have left me a deep 42 .
David：Nice to meet you, too, Lucy. May I know where you are from？
Lucy：Actually, I was born in Paris, but I 43 （bring） up in London. How about you？David：Oh, I’m a native American born in New York. I’m 44 art teacher in New York University. This art show is held by my students.
Lucy：Really？I’m a student 45 （major） in piano performance at the same college. I 46 （hold） a piano party next Saturday night at the Silver Bar. Would you like to come？David：I’d love to. Do you mind 47 I take my daughter with me？ 48 painting, she is fond of listening to music as well. She has an MP3 player, with 49 she can listen to some music when she feels 50 （tire） with her lessons.
Lucy：That’s great. I will be very glad to see you and your daughter at my piano party next Saturday.
41. 42. 43. 44. 45.
46. 47. 48. 49. 50.