We needn’t get ready yet; the guests ______ come for another hour. 

A. mustn’t                B. shouldn’t       C. shan’t            D. needn’t

Can you imagine the singer _____ so much in public?

A. being admired        B. admire           C. to be admired   D. admiring

I used to swim with my little friends in this lake every summer, but not once since I left my hometown in 1992 _________.

A. I have swum         B. have I swum    C. did I swim     D. I swam

So far a series of problems ________ brought about by this decision.

A. have                    B. has             C. has been            D. have been

Was it _____ he was training in the field _____ he got hurt?

A. that, when            B. where, that       C. that, where        D. when, that

—My parents will have more time to rest at home after their retirement.

—This is ______ you’re wrong. Most of the old hope for a more active life after they are retired.

A. where                 B. what           C. why          D. how

The year was 1964. A man I worked with had   1    a couple of 1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed (題寫) footballs and was selling them at a real   2    price. My first son was on the way. I bought the football as his "coming home from the hospital"    3   , and it was something truly special.

Several years later, young Tom was rummaging (亂翻) around in the garage  4   he came across the 1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed football. He asked if he could play with it. I 5   to him that he was still a bit too   6   to play carefully with such a special ball. We had the same   7   several more times in the next few months, and soon the requests  8 away.

The next fall, after watching a football game on television, Tom asked, "Dad,   9    that football you have in the garage? Can I use it to play with the guys now?" And I replied, "Tom, you don't just go out and   10   throw around a 1963 Chicago bears-inscribed football.  I told you before: it's special. "

  11   it wasn't special any more. I stood   12   in the garage. It had been a long time since the boys moved away from home, and suddenly I   13   that the football had never been so special at all. Children playing with it when it was their   14   to play is what would have made it special. I had blown those   15   moments that can never be reclaimed(找回), and I had   16   a football.   17   what?

    I took the football across the street and gave it to a   18   with young kids. A couple of hours later I looked out of the window. They were   19  , catching and kicking my 1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed football.

    Now it was   20  .

1. A. acquired        B. required             C. produced           D. stored

2. A. possible                B. reasonable         C. good                 D. low

3. A. mark                    B. blessing             C. honor                D. gift

4. A. once                    B. when                C. before               D. until

5. A. referred                B. warned              C. shouted             D. explained

6. A. amateur                B. young               C. weak                D. soon

7. A. adjustment            B. argument           C. conversation      D. discussion

8. A. faded                   B. ran                    C. floated                     D. went

9. A. recall                    B. take                  C. remember          D. collect

10. A. normally            B. happily              C. carefully            D. casually

11. A. But                     B. And                  C. So                    D. As

12. A. again                  B. once                 C. alone                 D. still

13. A. realized               B. doubted         C. considered               D. concluded

14. A. pleasure              B. right            C. chance          D. time

15. A. short                  B. precious        C. important          D. consistent（相容的）

16. A. saved                 B. hidden          C. damaged         D. bought

17. A. On                            B. Of             C. For             D. With

18. A. group                 B. family               C. school               D. kindergarten

19. A. throwing             B. holding              C. betting                     D. sharing

20. A. worthless            B. expensive          C. gone                 D. special

I found myself a little while ago in one of the largest American prisons. It was like a stone castle, its high towers watched by guards with guns. I had been there several times before, on earlier visits to the USA. But this time I had come to see one particular prisoner. He was nineteen and after two years by himself in one room was awaiting execution for murder. He had just heard the result of a fresh trial. He was to serve life imprisonment instead. He was white-faced and talkative, a boy who had failed in high school and had all too easily got caught up in a night’s adventure that had ended with burning down buildings, two deaths and those two years awaiting death.

This prison is no worse than many others and it is certainly better than some. After you have passed through the complicated series of gates and doors and the electronic instruments have checked that you have no metal on your person — that you have no gun in fact — you enter within the walls. At once you are astonished at the difference between the strict controls outside and curiously easy going way of life inside. Here are men walking about, often smoking cigars; the football team is being trained on the field; there is a good deal of standing around waiting for something to happen. And of course things do happen: a sudden shout, a rush to the water tower, a mad climb to its top, senseless disobedience for days. But this is somehow a symbol for a bigger senselessness of that.

This time I was wondering what twenty years (and that would be the minimum) might mean for one boy pushed into this organized idleness.

1. Which of the following is true?

A. They were taking the prisoner out to kill him.

B. The punishment had been changed from life imprisonment to death.

C. The punishment had been changed from death to life imprisonment

D. They were taking him out for a fresh trial.

2. The prison is ________.

A. the worst in America                               B. the best in America

C. the second best in America                      D. somewhere between the best and worst

3. How did the writer feel when he went inside?

A. Greatly surprised        B. Pleased.             C. Disappointed.            D. Frightened.

4. When one shows disobedience, he is ________.

A. doing whatever he likes                           B. making a lot of noise

C. not doing what is necessary                            D. not doing what he is told to

Books that Win Minds

The decision by the Whitbread judges to award its big prize to a children’s fiction, The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, will have delighted parents and teachers. For Pullman is an author credited, like J.K. Rowling, with the magical power of getting children to read, creating a fictional world so fascinating that even the most stubbornly reluctant readers fall under his page-turning spell (魔力) and discover the joy of books.

The following are some of his viewpoints on reading：

²      We read for many reasons. But what all of us get from engaging with a story is what you don’t quite get with television or film. On screen the pictures do your imagining for you. When you read you have to put more into it — and what you have to put in, you get out.

²      In engaging with a book, something more active is going on in your mind because you are imagining for yourself. This is the thing that parents wish their children were doing.

²      The sense of joy and power and freedom when you can do that— that’s been lost in the national curriculum and the reading strategy. They don’t mention the fun.

²      There is a wonderful range of popular science books which are fascinating for children, who will follow a grown-up book as far as it will take them if they are fascinated by the subject.

²      I read a lot of trash, too—everybody ought to read trash. That way you don’t rely on others to develop your taste.

1. The author of the book, The Amber Spyglass is ________.

A. Whitbread       B. Philip Pullman     C. J.K. Rowling     D. We don’t know

2. According to the author, the main advantage of reading books over watching TV or film is that________.

A. reading can make people imagine something more actively

   B. reading provides more fun

   C. there are more interesting books than TV plays or films

   D. reading can make you more concentrated on your work

3. It is implied that the national curriculum and reading strategy are ________.

   A. important        B. interesting         C. terrible          D. not fascinating

4. In the last paragraph the underlined word trash most probably means________.

   A. science books     B. novels     C. books of poor quality    D. interesting books

In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit (押金) on beverage (飲料) containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum (鋁) cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it would be buried in landfills (垃圾填埋場). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.

Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paintbrushes, etc.

As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life--and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.

    Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal (處理), which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims (減少) the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.

1. What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?

A. Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.

  B. Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.

  C. A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.

D. Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on  returning them.

2. The returned plastic bottles in New York used to________.

   A. end up somewhere underground                      B. be turned into raw materials

   C. have a second-life value                               D. be separated from other rubbish

3. Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because________.

   A. local governments find it easy to manage

   B. recycling has great appeal for the jobless

   C. recycling causes little pollution

   D. other methods are more expensive

4. It can be concluded from the passage that________.

   A. rubbish is a potential remedy (補(bǔ)救) for the shortage of raw materials

   B. local governments in the U.S. can expect big profits from recycling

   C. recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally

   D. landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal