---What’s that noise?

   ---- Oh, I forgot to tell you. The new machine ____________.

A. was tested       B. will be tested      C. is being tested       D. has been tested

There are good Santas and there are bad Santas. The good Santas all realize one thing: In the mind of a child, Santa Claus is perfect.

That’s difficult. And so they come from around the world to attend the Charles W. Howard School in Midland, Mich. The school offers a three-day, 40-hour course for Santas hoping to be excellent. A former Macy’s Santa named Charles Howard founded the Michigan school in 1937. “Many people will think if you have a suit and you’re a Santa,” said Tom Valent, the school’s current dean. “It’s more than that.”

The school teaches everything from breathing techniques for carol singing to the beard maintenance. There are lessons in child psychology, sign language and even media training for talk-show appearances and call-in shows. Santas also need to make sure they know all the names of the reindeer(馴鹿). What’s harder to deal with, however, is children who ask for Christmas gifts like bringing daddy home or making mommy happy again.

After spending time in the classroom, Weir went to the mall to test his training. However, at one point, his hat fell off, and he was unsure how to react. “You’re the real Santa,” Valent said. “Pick that hat up, slip it back on, keep smiling and do your job. You’ve got to stay on top of your game. Even the last one at night, when you’re tired, you’ve got to remember: This one’s forever, so do a good job.”

63. According to the passage, good Santas should be the ones that ______.

A. can offer the children some gifts                 B. help adults look after their children

C. have ability to make children happy           D. should be perfect in the mind of children

64. The Michigan school was founded by Charles Howard with the purpose to ______.

A. train the pet reindeer for the Santas           B. earned money from its students

C. train perfect Santas for the world              D. show the world’s concern to the poor

65. According to Weir’s performance, we can conclude that ______.

A. Weir was short of experience                B. Weir was not fit for the job as a Santa

C. Weir did very badly in the game         D. Weir was not a good student in school

— What do you think of the film “Avatar”?

— ______ it with “2010”, I have ______ the former.

A. Compare, preference for                          B. Compared, a preference with   

C. Comparing, preference with               D. Comparing, a preference for

 Lily would rather I _______ her at the airport yesterday, but I was then busy with a meeting.

A. would meet        B. met           C. had met         D. have met  

 Thanksgiving is celebrated_______.

       A. in both America and England                        B. in neither American or England

       C. in America only                                           D. in England only

 My son __________ his clock  when I went to get a cup I __________ in his study.

A. was winding up; had left    B. would up; had forgotten 

C. had wounded; left         D. was winding up; forgot

Ⅲ  閱讀（共兩節(jié)，滿分40分）

第一節(jié)  閱讀理解（共15小題；每小題2分，滿分30分）

閱讀下列短文，從每題所給的A、B、C和D項(xiàng)中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)，并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。

Can you believe your eyes? A recent experiment suggests that the answer to that question may depend on your age.

Martin Doherty, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland, led the team of scientists. In this experiment, Doherty and his team tested the perception(觀察力) of some people, using pictures of some orange circles. The researchers showed the same pictures to two groups of people. The first group included 151 children aged 4 to 10, and the second group included 24 adults aged 18 to 25.

The first group of pictures showed two circles alone on a white background. One of the circles was larger than the other, and these people were asked to identify the larger one. Four-year-olds identified the correct circle 79 percent of the time. Adults identified the correct circle 95 percent of the time.

Next, both groups were shown a picture where the orange circles, again of different sizes, were surrounded by gray circles. Here’s where the trick lies in. In some of the pictures, the smaller orange circle was surrounded by even smaller gray circles — making the orange circle appear larger than the other orange circle, which was the real larger one. And the larger orange circle was surrounded by even bigger gray circles — so it appeared to be smaller than the real smaller orange circle.

When young children aged 4 to 6 looked at these tricky pictures, they weren’t fooled — they were still able to find the bigger circle with roughly the same accuracy as before. Older children and adults, on the other hand, did not do as well. Older children often identified the smaller circle as the larger one, and adults got it wrong most of the time.

As children get older, Doherty said, their brains may develop the ability to identify visual context. In other words, they will begin to process the whole picture at once: the tricky gray circles, as well as the orange circle in the middle. As a result, they’re more likely to fall for this kind of visual trick.

41．Doherty and his team of scientists did an experiment to evaluate        .

A．children’s and adults’ eye-sight

B．people’s ability to see accurately

C．children’s and adults’ brains

D．the influence of people’s age

42．When asked to find the larger circle,        .

A．children at 6 got it wrong 79 % of the time with no gray ones around

B．only adults over 18 got it right 95% of the time with gray ones around

C．children at 4 got it right about 79 % of the time with gray ones around

D．a(chǎn)dults got it right most of the time with gray ones around

43．According to the passage, we can know that        .

A．a(chǎn) smaller orange circle appears bigger on a white background

B．a(chǎn)n orange circle appears bigger than a gray one of the same size

C．a(chǎn) circle surrounded by other circles looks bigger than its real size

D．a(chǎn) circle surrounded by bigger ones looks smaller than its real size

44．Visual context may work when children get older than        .

A．4                           B．6                            C．10                          D．18

45．Why are younger children not fooled?

A．Because they are smarter than older children and adults.

B．Because older people are influenced by their experience.

C．Because people’s eyes become weaker as they grow older.

D．Because their brain can hardly notice related things together.

       Maybe you have been to many countries, but nowhere else ___ such a beautiful palace.

A.    can you find  B. you could find   C. you can find      D. could you find

閱讀下面短文,從短文后所給的A、B、C、D四個(gè)選項(xiàng)中,選出一個(gè)可以填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng),并用鉛筆把答題卡上對應(yīng)題目的答案標(biāo)號涂黑。

In Twain, many people know what a “motorpool” means. It is   36  known as a place for the maintenance(維修)of official business and government cars.   37  it is a place for vehicle maintenance.

More than ten years ago I came to America on business and I took advantage of the   38   to visit my friend. My friend drove a car to   39   me at the airport, and took me to his home. Out of the   40 , my friend drove his car into the innermost   41  , which had a sign “carpool only”. I   42   what “carpool” meant. I felt doubted whether he was going to a motorpool.   43   I thought myself clever in asking:

       “Is there anything wrong with the car?”

       “Nothing.   44  ?” said he.

       “Well then, why are you going to carpool?” I   45  .

       My friend couldn’t help   46   and told me that“carpool”refers to the lane that only the cars with two or more   47   can drive in. I felt rather embarrassed on   48   that.

       After dinner, my friend’s neighbor came over to ask whether he   49   “carpool” the next day.  “ 50  ,” my friend said, “I will accompany my friend to go shopping tomorrow.” I was   51  again, wondering why he could not “carpool” with him since we had “carpooled”   52  . My friend explained to me again that the “carpool” that his neighbor   53   meant they in turn drove the car to work so as to save energy. The first “carpool” is a noun,   54   the second “carpool” is a verb. It is really   55   for newcomers in America to understand it in a short time.

A. commonly      B. probably    C. partly  D. simply

A. In general       B. In particular      C. First of all  D. Above of all

A. break      B. time    C. chance       D. place

A. watch      B. help    C. meet   D. catch

A. house      B. airport       C. station D. waiting-room

A. road B. lane    C. street  D. route

A. wondered       B. knew  C. understood D. learned

A. For  B. Thus   C. Then   D. Though

A. How       B. What  C. Why   D. Where

A. replied   B. asked  C. explained   D. answered

A. saying    B. talking       C. laughing     D. speaking

A. passengers     B. drivers       C. gentlemen  D. ladies

A. noticing B. seeing C. informing   D. hearing

A. needed   B. could  C. should D. would

A. Sure      B. Sorry  C. Pardon       D. Good

A. believed B. doubted      C. confused    D. worried

A. today     B. tomorrow   C. yesterday    D. tonight

A. used      B. insisted      C. learned       D. provided

A. as   B. so       C. while  D. for

A. interesting     B. difficult     C. important   D. necessary

閱讀理解 (共5小題；每小題2分．滿分10分)

    根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，在相應(yīng)題號后的橫線上寫下相關(guān)信息 (不多于七個(gè)單詞)，完成對該問題的回答。答語要求結(jié)構(gòu)正確，書寫工整，字跡清楚。

        The Fun They Had in School

      On the page headed May l7，2517，Margie wrote in her diary，“Today Tommy found a real book!”

      It was a very old book covered with dust．Margie’s grandfather once said that long ago all stories were printed on paper

      “What is it about?” asked Margie

    “School”

    “School? What’s there to write about school? I hate school．”

     Margie hated school now more than ever．The electric teacher had bee giving her drill after drill in geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother had finally sent for someone to fix the teacher

    The man came with a whole box of tools．He turned off the elecuicity，and started to repair the teacher．There was a momtor that showed questions，and a hole where Margie had to put compositions and test papers．The electric teacher marked the paper quickly．

    Margie asked Tommy，“Why would anyone write about school?”

    “Because it’s the school they bad hundreds of years ago”

      Margie read the book for a while，then said，“Anyway，they had a teacher？”

      “Yes，but it was a man”

    “A man? How could a man be a teacher?”

    “Well，he just told the kids things and gave them homework”

    “A man isn’t smart enough．”

    “Sure he is．My father knows as much as my teacher’’

    “But I wouldn’t want a strange in my house to teach me．”Margie argued

    Tommy laughed．“The teacher didn’t live in the house．They had a special building and all the kids went there”

    “And all the kids learnt the same thing?”

    “Sure，if they were the same age”

      They weren’t even half-finished when Margle’s mother called．“Margfa! School!”

    Margie went into the school next to her bedroom，and the electric teacher was waiting far her them．It was the same way every day except Saturday and Sunday

    The monitor lit up，and it said，“Please put yesterday’s homework in the proper hole”

    Margie sighed and threw a dirty sock at the machine．She was thinking about the old days．All the kids from the whole neighborhood came to the school，Iaughing and shouting in the yard．They could even help one another with the homework

    And the teachers were people!

How happy they were in the old days，Margie thought．

1．When did the story in the passage take place?

2．Wny did Margie hate school?

3．How did Margie feel when she heard that teachers of hundreds of years ago were people instead

  of machines?

4．How did kids in Margie’s time receive education?

5．What does the underlined word“They”refer to in the title?