For the rest of the week, Joe practiced kicking football hard, concentrating on his each kicking. Sometimes Joe hit the ball straight. Sometimes it went wide again. But it seemed that the more he believed he could do it, the easier it was.

“I’m not a joke now,” thought Joe. “Not a joke at all!” But a practice wasn’t like a real match and his boots were still not giving him enough power.

He should have told his mum and dad about it straight away but, of course, he didn’t. He was always shy to ask for things.

Finally, late on the night before the match, he could hold himself back no longer.

“Dad, I haven’t got any proper football boots …” he said.

“Ah,” said Dad, “I might be able to help you there.”

At the words, Joe was excited. New boots! He thought. “He’s got me some new boots! He must have got me them for Christmas,” thought Joe, “But now that I’m in an important match, he’s giving them to me early. Wonderful!”

Dad went upstairs. Joe excitedly tried to watch the football preview on TV. He wasn’t playing for Manchester United or Liverpool, of course, but he was part of it all now; part of the thrill. His legs twitched with every kick on the screen. His head shook with every centre. And all the time, his mind was racing ahead to his own great game the next morning, in his super new boots.

It was ages before his dad came downstairs again. He put a large pair of shiny black boots in front of Joe.

As he stared at them, the boy felt as if someone had poured ice into his brain. The boots were awful!

“Good, eh?” said his dad.

Joe found it hard to speak. He had never seen anything like them before.

They weren’t low-cut, soft or…. They had big, hard square toes, great big long studs and they were high at the ankle. They were his dad’s old rugby boots, polished up.

Joe was filled with disappointment. They had been good boots, quality boots. And they were his size. Joe’s feet were enormous for his age. But he could imagine what everyone at school would say.

“ …,” he finally gasped, “ should be exactly my size.”

“At least I won’t slip,” he thought, “the studs are like sharks’ teeth!” Then he couldn’t help thinking about those in Ashton’s windows, which he had been longing to get.

That night, he went to bed early but he didn’t sleep much because he was so terrified of being late. He woke at 1.17, 2.49, 3.37, 3.43, 4.55. The numbers jumped off the big face of his digital clock. Then 10.40!

Ahhh!!!

He jumped out of bed. He seized the clock. 6.03! 10.40 had been only a dream. At eight, breakfast time, it was raining like mad.

“Might get called off, Joe,” suggested his mum.

“Never, Mother. …will not be like cricket,” said his dad. “Will take a lot to stop football.”

Joe checked everything for the tenth time. He put his boots at the very bottom of his large bag, well out of sight. He had decided to put them on when nearly everyone had left the changing room. Then his classmates wouldn’t make fun of him. Soon, it was time to set out.

“Good luck!” said his mum, giving him a kiss.

His dad had his coat on, ready for his morning deliveries. “Want a lift to school?” he said. “I hope to get down to watch you when I’ve done the trip to Eccles.”

“Okay,” said Joe.

As Dad’s van carried him down the hill to school, Joe was thinking about the boots. If only … but no, he had to stop that kind of thinking. It doesn’t matter about the boots, he told himself.

1.From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that _____.

A. Joe had been confident about himself in playing football

B. Joe had been laughed at for his poor football skills

C. Joe had been playing football greatly

D. Joe had not looked forward to joining in the football game

2.You can read the disappointment of Joe from the following sentences except _____.

A. …, the boy felt as if someone had poured ice into his brain.

B. “ …,” he finally gasped, “should be exactly my size.”

C. He could imagine what everyone at school would say.

D. “At least I won’t slip,” he thought, “the studs are like sharks’ teeth!”

3.The night before the football match, how many times did Joe wake up before he jumped out of bed finally?

A. threeB. fourC. fiveD. six

4.You can put “They” at the beginning of the sentence _____

A. “_____ might get called off, Joe,” suggested his mum.

B. “_____,” he finally gasped, “ should be exactly my size.”

C. “Never, Mother. _____ will not be like cricket,” said his dad.

D. “ _____will take a lot to stop football.”

5.rom the story, we can infer that Joe’s father is likely to be a(n) _____.

A. dentistB. engineerC. rugby playerD. milkman

6.What can be the best title of the story?

A. Joe’s footballB. Joe’s football team

C. Joe’s football bootsD. Joe’s dream

For this part of “Tips for Applying to US Colleges” we visited Shenandoah University in the US state of Virginia. It is a private institution with about 4,000 students from 55 countries. We asked them some of questions about adapting to American culture and writing admissions essays.

A. How can I succeed in applying to American colleges?

B. What advice do you have for writing an admission essay?

C. Why should I study abroad?

D. What are some difficulties students have adapting to US culture?

E. What about religious life on campus?

F. What are some academic difficulties foreign students face?

1._______________

I think everyone should travel and live and work and study abroad. I think it’s great for a lot of reasons. One—of course you’re going to learn something about other people. And that’s good, we should know about other people because we live in what is called a “globalized world.” More importantly, you’re going to learn something about yourself. You’re going to learn about how strong you really are. You’re going to learn that you have capabilities that you never knew you had. When you’re in another place and maybe you don’t even speak the language very well, you’re gonna find that you still figure a way to communicate. Maybe you can do something even bigger and even more, a little more challenging.

2._______________

Students often misunderstand policies that we have here. And I think sometimes that can get students into trouble. I think we have had some issues with students who have worked a little too closely together for our professors’ level, and so that has created some challenges at times for those students. In terms of that, kind of, power structure between a professor and a student here, I would say our environment, our culture here at Shenandoah, there’s not a whole lot of that. I mean it’s very much of an environment where that sort-of barrier between professor and student is a little less than what it might be the case at other institutions. So that part of it is not as much of an issue.

3._______________

I would say the important thing is to also be authentic. Be yourself. Most students are reading a lot of essays and after a while they start to kind of sound the same. And so you want to give that person the curiosity to know you. And you’re special. You’re different than everybody else that’s applying. So, I think if you can try your best. Of course, there are things you think, “I need to say these things because that’s what they want to hear.” Certainly if there are topics that they are asking you to respond to, you want to do that. But, to try as much as you can to give the person who’s reading your essay an idea of who you are and what makes you unique. I think that would be my main advice.

4.______________

We are open to all religions, of all backgrounds. I mean we have a Catholic campus ministry, we have a Muslim student association, and we have a Jewish student association. We really do aim to be inclusive of all students regardless of their religious beliefs. Students certainly feel included, they certainly feel comfortable being here, you know, they’re—regardless of whatever their religious beliefs might be and even if that’s—even if they don’t have any religious beliefs. We certainly have students who are that way too.

5._______________

A lot of it breaks down to different communication styles. Some are what we would call “high context cultures.” It means that you shouldn’t have to say what the problems is. Some cultures like American culture is very low context. We expect you say exactly what you mean. And if you didn’t say it, we probably don’t know it’s a problem. So sometime we—I have seen some students maybe have some roommate issues because the international student is upset with something and they assume the roommate must know that they’re upset. But the roommate—the American roommate—maybe doesn’t even know that it’s a problem. And one of the things I would caution new international students is that it's kind of an American way to be very open and friendly with everyone.

文中共有10處語言錯誤，每句中最多有兩處，每處錯誤僅涉及一個單詞的增加、刪除或修改.

增加：在缺詞處增加個漏字符號（∧），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）不計分.

例如：

Miss Cooper was a teacher works at a school for boys and girls. She taught the chemistry for all the students from different grade in the school. Sometimes the new classes learned rapidly, but sometimes they were slowly. One day, one of the classes has been studying for minutes while Miss Cooper suddenly asked, “What is water?” Luckily, nobody could answer the question, so Miss Cooper felt sad. The moment Danny, who was not one of the brightest boys in the class, raised hand, Miss Cooper said in an exciting voice, “Please, Danny!”

“Water is a liquid what has no color until you wash your hands in it, then it turns grey,” replied the boy.

高中三年，你或多或少，或快或慢，在學(xué)習(xí)或生活方面，都在進步。請你以My Progress 為題，用英語寫一篇文章，給學(xué)校的英語報紙投稿。

要求：1. 簡要描述你的進步及原因。

2. 畢業(yè)前你下一步的打算。

3．字數(shù)120左右。

My Progress

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——If you make it in the competition, I’ll buy you a drink.

——Ok. ______!

A. That’s a deal B. That’s all right

C. Good luck D. Take care

Tom, a shy boy, who lacks ______ confidence, doesn’t get ______ attention he deserves.

A. the; the B. /; the C. the; / D. /; /

There’s ______ better than seeing a child suddenly get what we teach.

A. anything B. everything C. nothing D. something

People who can communicate ______ are always in demand when it comes to job-hunting.

A. carefully B. quickly C. smoothly D. seriously

Being younger and thinner, she can eat super big hamburgers, ______ I have to give up in the interest of my weight.

A. that B. who C. whom D. which

Nowadays, it’s a challenge to protect your ______, for your personal information is everywhere.

A. wealth B. family C. identity D. right