The best Mother’s Day gift I ever received was a magnolia(木蘭)tree. At first, it was a tired little thing, but it was mine, and I know I would treasure it.

    Magnolia trees were my mother’s favorite. We had one in the front yard of our house when I was growing up. I can still remember Mom’s pleasure upon seeing the buds. “Oh, look,” she’d cry out every year, “the magnolia tree is going to bloom(開花)—just in time for my birthday.” And sure enough, on April 19, her birthday, the graceful pink-and-white flowers would be all over the branches, announcing the arrival of spring.

    Back then, I didn’t find the blooming of a tree to be an event worthy of celebration. A new toy, a pretty dress or a trip to the amusement park—those were exciting. But my mother had a way of appreciating the smallest things as wonders. A baby’s smile, or a call from an old friend filled her with happiness.

    On the first Mother’s Day following her death six years ago, I wasn’t sure how I’d manage. Reminders of my mother’s absence seemed to be everywhere.

    That Sunday morning I awoke to a quiet house, with warm sun streaming through the windows. I wondered where my husband had gone with our two daughters, Kira,4, and Sophie, 9 months. As I was relaxing in bed, enjoying the peace, Kira suddenly burst through the bedroom door.

    “Look outside, Mommy!” she ordered. There, in the yard, David was digging a hole. Next to him was a little tree whose roots were wrapped.

    “It’s a magnolia tree,” Kira said, though I didn’t need to be told. I raised the window and called out to David. “Happy Mother’s Day!” he said.

    It was. Although I didn’t have my mother any longer, I had her tree, and each year since, I’ve had her enthusiasm(激情). Now when we pull up to our house on a bright spring day, I say to my daughters, “Oh look! The magnolia’s about to bloom.” And when it does, we admire its beauty and use it as a chance to talk about my mother and her love for flowers.

What time does the magnolia bloom according to the passage?

A. In spring.

B. In summer.

C. During the writer’s birthday.

D. Around Mother’s Day.

42. What impresses the writer most about her mother was __________.

A. her care of children

B. her love for flowers

C. her devotion to family

D. her appreciation of life

43. By saying “I had her tree” (Paragraph 8), the writer most probably implies that _______.

A. the magnolia tree was just her mother’s favorite

B. she owned the same kind of tree as her mother once had

C. the same kind of tree could often remind her of her mother

D. the tree could take the place of her mother in her memory

44. The writer’s purpose in writing the passage is to __________.

A. describe her happy family life

B. recall her childhood experiences

C. show how she loves magnolia trees

D. express her love for her dead mother
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科目：高中英語 來源：2015屆福建省高一上學(xué)期期末考試英語試卷（解析版） 題型：單詞拼寫

單詞填空（根據(jù)首字母或漢語寫單詞的正確形式，每小題1分，共10分）

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科目：高中英語 來源：2012-2013學(xué)年安徽省高三4月模擬測試卷（二）英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

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“That’s good, sir.”

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“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”

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“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”

“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”

“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

“I wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’ can’t tell me.”

By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

1.The best title for the article is _______.

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B．The Most Frightening Words

C．The Computer of the Airport

D．Asking the Computer

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B．She could write out a ticket.

C．She could answer the passengers’ questions.

D．She could do nothing.

3.Why do you think they had not a backup computer?

A．Because it was easy down

B．Because it was very expensive.

C．Because it was not advanced enough.

D．Because it was not as big as the main computer.

4.The last paragraph suggests that _______.

A．a(chǎn) modern computer won’t be down.

B．computers can take the place of humans

C．sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people

D．there will be great changes in computers

 

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科目：高中英語 來源：2012-2013學(xué)年吉林省四校聯(lián)合體高三第一次診斷性測試英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh.2011. Japan's Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami（海嘯） warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

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Costas Synolakis ，a tsunami expert at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles said，"Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not expected the size of this event."

He says there are two reasons for this. Japan has not had any event anywhere near as big as this one in the last one hundred fifty years. And scientists had not expected such a large earthquake happening off the coast of Japan.

The nine point zero magnitude earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst earthquake ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves that followed were reported to have reached as high as thirteen meters in some areas.

Costas Synolakis says Japan's concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves.

Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted

1.Where can this passage probably be adapted from?

A．A magazine on science                   B．A fairy Tale

C．A scientific fantasy book                  D．A newspaper

2.Which of the following statements NOT true ?

A．A terrible earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan

B．It was also the worst earthquake in Japan

C．The 9.0 earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan

D．Japan's concrete sea walls was unable to handle such high waves.

3.According to Costas Synolakis, why did Japan suffer such a loss?

A．The country has never experienced any event as big as this one over the past 150 years

B．Japan has the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

C．There are not concrete sea walls around all of the Japanese coastline

D．The government didn’t announce its first tsunami warnings three minutes earlier.

 

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科目：高中英語 來源：2012-2013學(xué)年河南省鄭州市高三4月模擬考試英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

When I was seven my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices（裝置）tell the time—which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists; sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007. 

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If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead the Swiss reinvented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world. 

Watches are now classified as“investments”(投資). A 1994 Philippe recently sold for nearly £350, 000, while the 1960s Rolexes have gone from £15, 000 to £30, 000 plus in a year. But a watch is not an investment. It's a toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that £350, 000 beauty will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Timex.

1.It seems ridiculous to the writer that_______________.

A．people dive 300 meters into the sea

B．expensive clothes sell better than cheap ones

C．cheap cars don’t run as fast as expensive ones

D．expensive watches with unnecessary functions still sell

2.What can be learned about Swiss watch industry from the passage?

A．It’s hard for the industry to beat its competitors.

B．It targets rich people as its potential customers.

C．It wastes a huge amount of money in advertising.

D．It’s easy for the industry to reinvent cheap watches.

3.Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．Watches? Not for Me!                    B．My Childhood Timex

C．Timex or Rolex?                        D．Watches—a Valuable Collection

 

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While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.

The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to compete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.

I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I’m not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold – his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.

I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.

But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.

No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.

A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.

Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.

In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitirs, it is nice to watch an underdog.

1.From the passage we can learn that the young man        .

A．made his turn to start back pitifully

B．was skillful in freestyle in the game

C．swam faster than the average swimmer

D．was not capable enough to win the medal

2.The crowd changed their attitudes because         .

A．they felt sorry for the young man

B．they were moved by the young man’s courage

C．they wanted to show their sympathy

D．they meant to please the young man

3.According to the passage, “it is nice to watch an underdog” probably means         .

A．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself

B．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills

C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before their competitors

D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silver medals

4.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．The event started with three men, two of whom were disqualified later.

B．The crowd started to laugh at the athlete’s arms waving in an attempt at freestyle.

C．The athlete, as well as the author, is an expert swimmer.

D．The swimming event is a show of courage rather than a fierce competition.

5.What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Compete for Gold!

B．Try again!

C．Break a Record!

D．Go for it!

 

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