My wife and I used to feel that it was impossible to be a true friend to someone whose name we didn’t know. How wrong we were! Years of Sunday-morning bus trips through the city with the same group of “nameless” people have changed our thinking. Before the bus takes off, we all join in a conversation: where’s the silent woman who sits up front and never responds to our cheery greetings? Here she comes. Her worn clothing suggests she doesn’t have much money to spare, but she always takes an extra cup of coffee for the driver.

We get smiles from a Mexican couple as they get on the bus hand in hand. When they get off, they’re still holding hands. The woman was pregnant late last year, and one day her change of shape confirmed that she’d delivered the child. We even felt a little pride at the thought of our extended family.

For many months, our only sadness lay in our inability to establish the same friendship with the silent woman at the front of the bus. Then, one evening, we went to a fish restaurant. We were shown to a table alongside someone sitting alone. It was the woman from the bus.

We greeted her with friendly familiarity we’d shown all year, but this time her face softened, then a shy smile. When she spoke, the words escaped awkwardly from her lips. All at once we realized why she hadn’t spoken to us before. Talking was hard for her.

Over dinner, we learned the stay of a single mother with a disabled son who was receiving special care away from home. She missed him desperately, she explained. “I love him… and he loves me, even though he doesn’t express it very well,” she murmured. “Lots of us have that problem, don’t we? We don’t say what we want to say, what we should be saying. And that’s not good enough.” The candles flared on our tables. Our fish had never tasted better. But the atmosphere grew pleasant, and when we parted as friends—we shared names.

1.All the following statements can describe the woman except ______.

A. poor         B. warm –hearted

C. silent         D. cold

2.The underlined word “establish” in the 3th paragraph has the same meaning as_________.

A. keep         B. discover

C. set up         D. accept

3.The woman had the same problem with her son in the way that ______.

A. they both disabled people

B. they both had some difficulty in expressing

C. they both liked bus travel

D. they both brought interest to the passengers

4.Which of the following might be the best title of this passage?

A. Friends of the Road B. The Silent Woman on the Bus

C. Going to Work by Bus D. Different Kinds of Friendship

Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English ruler tried to conquer Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English, Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two "Irelands". Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.

        In the 1840s the main crop, potatoes, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

        For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people will work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

        The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were "the greatest talkers since the Creeks". Since independence, Ireland has revived (復(fù)興) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

1.What does the author tell us in paragraph 1?

A. How the Irish fought against the English.

B. How Ireland gained independence.

C. How English rulers tried to conquer Ireland.

D. How two “Irelands” came into being.

2.We learn from the text that in Ireland________.

A. food shortages in the 1840s led to a decline in population

B. people are moving to the cities for lack of work in the countryside

C. it is harder to make a living as a farmer than as a factory worker

D. different kinds of old Irish songs are all sung with instruments

3.The last paragraph is mainly about________.

A. the Irish character

B. Irish culture

C. Irish musical instruments

D. a famous Irish writer

4.What can be the best title for the text?

A. Life in Ireland B. A very difficult history

C. Ireland, past and present D. the independence of Ireland

Like lots of small-business owners, Lola Gonzalez had to decide to cut down her company’s nine-person staff (員工) when the economic recovery began to fail last spring. Unlike other companies, she picked an unlikely employee to lay off (解雇): herself.

Her business began to have problems in 2008 after going through her books (賬簿)

One day, her husband, Marcos, told her she had to reduce her payroll（薪金總額）by one person. Gonzalez said at a meeting, “I want you all to know that I have to lay somebody off and it’s been a very difficult decision. And that person is me.” Employees first froze in amazement and then burst into laughter until they realized she was serious. Gonzalez ’s employees said they were grateful for her kindness.

Her reason was simple. Although she ran the business and her employees did the legwork (跑腿), she thought she could find work more easily than her staff. Sure enough, she soon got a job as a social worker for a non-profit organization called Devereux Kids. She enjoys her social-worker job now, but the salary (薪水) cut has required some lifestyle changes. She and Marcos no longer eat out daily; they no longer pay for their son’s car and mobile phone, and they changed their car to a smaller one to save $300 a month.

Her business has picked up a bit recently and Marcos has begun to work part-time at Gonzalez’s company. Gonzalez says she has no plan to return to work at her company until the economic situation becomes better, perhaps in a year. Her employees, however, will get Christmas bonuses (獎(jiǎng)金) this year.

1.How many workers are there in Gonzalez’s company at present?

A. 8. B. 9. C. 10. D. 11.

2.How did her employees feel at first when they heard Gonzalez’s decision?

A. Happy. B. Grateful.

C. Surprised. D. Unbelievable.

3. After leaving her company, _____________.

A. Gonzalez sold her car and went to work by bus

B. Gonzalez always had meals in a restaurant

C. Gonzalez’s son helped her a lot

D. Gonzalez changed her lifestyle a lot

4. From the text, we can learn that ___________.

A. Gonzalez will not return to her company in future

B. Gonzalez’s business has improved a little lately

C. Gonzalez got her social-worker job with great difficulty

D. Marcos lost his job and had to work at Gonzalez’s company

You may have seen a lot of frogs, but if you haven't, you must have heard about frogs. However, have you heard about a frog that can kill a person?

       These small brightly colored amphibians (兩棲動(dòng)物) live in the tropical  rain forests of Central and South America. They are best known for their ability to kill persons even though they are no more than 2 inches long. If we touch their poisonous skin without proper protection (such as gloves), we may die! For animals of this size that can be so deadly, they are certainly one of the world's most poisonous animals! Who are they? They are poison arrow frogs or, simply, poison frogs.

        Poison frogs acquired their name from the Indians. The Indians catch and kill many of these frogs before hanging them upside down over a campfire. As the frogs get hot, the poison drips out of their skin. The Indians collect the poisonous liquid in a bottle and dip(蘸) the tips of their arrows into the bottle. Once the tips are dried, they are ready to be used for their arrows for hunting.

       There are about 170 different types of poison arrow frogs in the world. Though most species have bright markings, either in stripes or patches, on their black bodies, some just wear noticeable single-colored coats. Their shocking skin colors-usually in yellow, red, green, blue or orange-serve as a warning sign to other animals. The sign simply says,” Stay away or pay with your life!” They certainly do not bluff.

1.We can infer that the Indians may kill poison frogs in order to______.

A. treat diseases         B. avoid being bitten

C. hunt animals           D. eat their meat

2.According to the passage,  poison frogs______.

A can grow to several meters long

B. like to change colors on the back

C. have bright-colored skin or markings

D. are on the edge of dying out

3.Which of the following best explains the last sentence of the passage?

A. Poison frogs don't want to kill others.

B. Poison frogs do not just scare others.

C. Poison frogs want to stop others from coming near.

D. Poison frogs just pretend to be dangerous animals.

It’s hard when a best friend isn’t around—maybe because he or she moved to a different school or a different class. 1. . You want to have new friends, but how do you make them? Maybe it seems like everybody else already has his or her friends. 2. .

Start by looking around your classroom—think about which kids you’d like to play with at break. Look for chances to say hi to them, smile, and be friendly. 3. . Invite someone to play with you or say “Do you want to sit here?” in the lunchroom. When you’re at break, walk over to kids you want to play with, act friendly, and say “Hi, can I play, too?” or just join in.

If you have trouble doing this or if you’re feeling shy, ask your teacher to help you make new friends. Teachers are usually pretty good at matching up friends. 4. . Be kind, be friendly, share, say nice things, offer to help—and pretty soon, you’ll have one, or two, or even more new friends.

5. . But when you see each other, you can share something you didn’t have before he or she left: You can introduce him or her to your new friends!

A. What’s right for me?

B. But remember, there’s always room for more friends.

C. You may feel lonely at break or lunchtime.

D. The best way to make friends is to be a friend.

E. Offer to share something or offer greetings.

F. Make a choice in your life.

G. You might still miss that special best friend.

短文改錯(cuò)，假定英語(yǔ)課上老師要求同桌之間交換修改作文，請(qǐng)你修改你同桌寫的以下作文。文中共有10處語(yǔ)言錯(cuò)誤，每句中最多有兩處。錯(cuò)誤涉及一個(gè)單詞的增加、刪除或修改。

增加：在缺詞處加一個(gè)漏字符號(hào)（∧），并在其下面寫出該加的詞。

刪除：把多余的詞用斜線（\）劃掉。

修改：在錯(cuò)的詞下劃一橫線，并在該詞下面寫出修改后的詞。

注意：1. 每處錯(cuò)誤及其修改均僅限一詞；

2. 只允許修改10處，多者（從第11處起）不計(jì)分。

This morning, our school holds a fire drill(演練). We were listening the teacher attentively in the math class after we heard the fire alarm from the speaker on the wall. The teacher stopped teach immediately and organized us to exit the classroom quickly. When we got into the passageway, we found us surrounded by smoke. It was chocking but our tears ran down. We students bent down, covered our mouth with handkerchiefs, and running downstairs rapidly into the open on the playground, just as we had been taught ago. Fire disasters are often seeing on TV and read about in the newspaper. We should know the skill to escape from the fire in case of emergency.

今天，你收到了好友小玲的一封信，信中她說(shuō)過(guò)年想買一部手機(jī)，為此她征求你的意見，根據(jù)以下提示，請(qǐng)你寫一封信建議她不要買手機(jī)的回信。

提示：

1．發(fā)短信會(huì)占據(jù)太多的學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)間。 2．校內(nèi)不許用手機(jī)，因?yàn)闀?huì)打擾別人

3．還經(jīng)常會(huì)收到一些欺騙性的不良短信 4．因手機(jī)費(fèi)用而增加父母的負(fù)擔(dān)。

要求：

1．詞數(shù)120左右。 2．請(qǐng)?jiān)诖痤}卡上作答。

開頭結(jié)尾已給出不計(jì)入總數(shù)。

詞匯：欺騙性的不良短信：false short messages

Dear Xiao Ling,

I’m very glad to receive your letter today.

語(yǔ)言：

1.observe

A. modest B. occasion C. focus D. globe

2.therefore

A. throughout B. theory C. north D. smooth

3.humour

A. amuse B. struggle C. support D. budget

4.question

A. association B. attraction C. connection D. suggestion

5.anger

A. nationality B. rank C. fortunate D. explanation

______ young in our village are now living _______much more comfortable life than we did.

A.A ; \ B. The ; the

C.Ａ; a D. The ; a

The English teacher tells the students to have ______ for different races and appreciate the diversity of other cultures .

A. mercy B. sympathy

C. respect D. regret