— I’m afraid Mr Friend can’t see you until 4 o’clock.

— Oh, _______, I won’t wait.

A.no doubt B.in that case C.after all D.in this way

I stood in my grandmother’s garden with my son. He had a bottle of bubbles. You know the _______: it’s mainly soapy water with a plastic loop on one end. You dip ( 浸 ) the loop in the bottle, pull it out, and blow it to make bubbles. My son dipped and dipped and blew and blew but _______ to blow bubbles. He handed me the bottle and loop and asked me, “Daddy, can you make bubbles?”

I hadn’t blown bubbles in years. But I am a chemist by education. I have developed several shampoos, so I _______ the science of bubbles.

But all that knowledge was _______ useless when trying to blow bubbles from a loop with soapy water. I had no more success than my son.

I would dip and blow, but there were no bubbles; the soapy film on the loop would just _______ without forming any bubbles.

After several attempts (尝试), I tried a _______ method. Instead of blowing on the loop of soapy water, I gently breathed on it. My son cried with pleasure as a big beautiful bubble formed and _______ away.

I _______ to him, “Son, you shouldn’t blow hard. Instead, you should breathe gently on the loop to make bubbles.”

He gave up trying to make big bubbles by blowing hard and _______ my advice. Big bubbles.

There are some things that you can get with force, but there are other things like love and respect that only come with the gentleness of a soft breath. The _______ something is to higher spirit, the more it is like bubbles; it can’t be forced. Blow beautiful bubbles; breathe easy.

1.A.type B.colour C.size D.standard

2.A.tried B.failed C.learned D.managed

3.A.believe B.realize C.discover D.understand

4.A.hardly B.nearly C.completely D.partly

5.A.fly B.change C.break D.rise

6.A.simple B.traditional C.popular D.different

7.A.floated B.dropped C.jumped D.pushed

8.A.explained B.shouted C.announced D.complained

9.A.offered B.refused C.followed D.needed

10.A.farther B.smaller C.closer D.more

Many expressions that we use in American English come from novels. Today we will look at some of them from Lewis Carroll’s famous novel Alice in Wonderland in detail.

The story is about a young girl falling down a rabbit hole. When she finally lands, she finds herself in a strange world and meets some strange characters.

The first character Alice meets is the White Rabbit, who runs past her and says some strange words. Alice chases him, and that is where her adventures begin. As she runs after the rabbit, she falls down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. The expression1. can mean to enter an unexpected situation. However, usually we use this expression to mean we get interested in something to the point of distraction (分神). It often happens by accident and is about something not that meaningful.

Later in the story, Alice meets the March Hare and the Hatter at a crazy tea party. Hares have long been thought to behave excitedly in March, which is their mating (交配) season. Scientifically, this may not be true. But 2. means that someone is totally mad, or crazy. The expression 3. also means to be completely crazy and is more common. But don’t tell the March Hare. He must be green with envy!

25-27: Please choose the best expression for each blank.

A.to chase a white rabbit

B.to be mad as a March hare

C.to be mad as a hatter

D.to fall down the rabbit hole

Most high school kids go from one class to the next, never getting a break from the books. What if kids had a chance to run a school radio station? Nathan Hill High School has a modern radio class that gives its students that very chance.

The students play the hottest music, produce ads and run testimonials. KNHC is known for playing up-and-down dance hits before any other station in the nation. KNHC-FM has 60, 000 listeners a week. Tim Green, the 18-year-old music director for KNHC, says, “For me, radio is a break from the usual school day. It is something I enjoy.”

Running a radio station is not all play. There is real work to do. The radio station stays on an exact timetable called an hour clock. The hour clock shows the time at which music and different announcements will be aired. The 17-year-old programme director, Shirley Smith, says, “All of that material airs within one minute, give or take, of the time that it’s written.”

Like any other job, hosting a radio programme should have special lingo, or language, for the students to learn. Below is a list of radio lingo used at KNHC.

1.The passage is most probably from ________.

A.a local newspaper B.a travel leaflet

C.a sports magazine D.a TV guide

2.Which kind of Radio Lingo do you think “Play inside, play for the world.” is?

A.Station I. D. B.P. S. A. C.Testimonial. D.C-Note.

3.Who of the following is the most suitable to be a director for KNHC?

A.A helpful teacher who can draw exact timetables.

B.An active designer who can produce creative ads.

C.A gentle pianist who is good at playing the classical music.

D.An energetic student who is always following the popular music.

Ned wanted to escape (逃跑) from the Nautilus while we were in the Mediterranean. However, he had no chance. The submarine (潜水艇) mostly stayed deep under the water.

Between Sicily and Gibraltar, I saw many shipwrecks. Some of them were very old. Others were more recent. I thought about all the bad memories that these shipwrecks had brought to people. So many men had died! As it surfaced, I wondered where it would go next on this strange journey.

Ned Land came to my room. “Tonight!” he said. “Tonight?” I was not ready for this. “Tonight,” he repeated, “we are a few miles off the Spanish coast. It will be dark, and the wind is blowing in the right direction. You agreed, Dr. Aronnax, to escape with me. Remember your promise!” I said nothing. “At nine o’clock,” continued Ned Land, “I will go to the staircase with Conseil. You will wait in the library for our signal.” “The sea is far from calm,” I said. “Yes, but if we don’t go tonight, we will soon be too far from land!” I knew he was right.

At seven o’clock, I was so nervous that I felt sick. Only two hours to go! As I looked around, I saw that Captain Nemo’s bedroom door was open. The room was empty. I saw pictures of famous liberators like Abraham Lincoln and John Brown on the walls. Was Captain Nemo a liberator, too?

It was eight o’clock. I dressed in my waterproof clothes and boots and went to the dark library. I waited for Ned’s signal. Just then, the engines stopped and came to rest on the ocean floor.

The library door opened, and Captain Nemo entered. He told me that we were in Vigo Bay. A Spanish commander had burned his own ships there in 1702 to prevent the British Navy from taking a great deal of gold they were carrying. He took me to the window. The people working on the Nautilus were bringing the gold to the submarine. Now, I knew how Captain Nemo had become so rich.

“But of what use is all this gold to you?” I asked.

“It is of no use to me!” he replied, “but it can help people who are oppressed ( 受 压 迫 的 ).” He stopped. Perhaps he thought he had said too much. However, I now understood what those liberators meant to him.

Ned Land came to my room the next morning. “We were unlucky,” he said, “the Nautilus stopped just as we were about to escape. Perhaps we can try again tonight.” Early in the afternoon, the Nautilus surfaced. We went onto the board, but the land was already out of sight. Escape was impossible now.

1.According to the passage, a “liberator” is a person who _______.

A.works as a national leader B.works to free others

C.works to find hidden treasure D.works in the library

2.Which of the following shows the right order of the story?

①The submarine passed many shipwrecks.

②The Nautilus moved away from Spanish coast.

③Captain Nemo knew the secret of the gold in Vigo Bay.

④Ned told Dr. Aronnax about the plan to escape.

A.③①④② B.①④③② C.③①②④ D.①④②③

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Captain Nemo helped people by getting gold from a Spanish commander.

B.Dr. Aronnax wasn’t willing to get away from the submarine Nautilus at all.

C.Sailing on the ocean must be dangerous and caused a large number of deaths.

D.Ned Land had got everything ready before he wanted to escape that night.

A jigsaw is a power-driven saw (锯) used to cut sharp curves (急弯曲线) in pieces of wood.

A jigsaw is also a puzzle. It is made up of a large number of small, interlocking pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it. A completed puzzle produces a picture or design.

Jigsaw puzzles were first created by producing a picture on a flat, rectangular (矩形) piece of wood, then cutting that picture into small pieces with a jigsaw – that’s where the name comes from!

Pictures found on jigsaw puzzles mainly include scenes from nature, city life and similar designs. Castles, mountains and water scenes are traditional subjects. However, any kind of picture can be used to make a jigsaw puzzle. Cartoon-styles are popular. There are companies that create puzzles from personal photographs. Completed puzzles can also be glued onto a piece of wood to make a wall hanging.

The first jigsaw puzzles were designed as geography teaching tools by John Spilsbury in 1767. His “jigsaw” was a map puzzle. It was a hand-painted map of England on a piece of wood. It was a successful teaching method. He went on to make over thirty other map puzzles. The pieces were not interlocking.

With the invention of power tools more than a century later, jigsaw puzzles with fully interlocking pieces came into being. The jigsaw machine could cut sharp curves. Then the name jigsaw puzzles came into being. Jigsaw puzzles became very popular in the United States in the early 1930s, when people had difficulty in finding jobs and making money.

Today puzzles of all sizes are a standard item in toy shops and supermarkets. However, they usually come in 300-piece, 500-piece, 750-piece, and 1,000-piece sizes. The largest one even has 24,000 pieces.

Some jigsaws are quite tricky. Try doing one with all pieces without pictures on it. A few puzzles are made double-sided, so they can be solved from either side. This increases the difficulty, because the puzzle solver cannot be certain which way up each piece goes. Some jigsaws do not have straight edges (边缘). The edge pieces could be any interlocking piece. Solving these jigsaws requires more effort than doing those straight-edged ones. Others designedly have a piece or two missing. Jigsaws are no longer educational toys but are used for entertainment or a hobby.

1.What can we learn about jigsaw puzzles?

A.Cartoon-style pictures are traditional subjects of jigsaw puzzles.

B.People can choose any photo they like to use in a jigsaw puzzle.

C.The smallest jigsaw puzzle in the world has three hundred pieces.

D.There are many small, interlocking pieces in all the jigsaw puzzles.

2.Which of the following can most probably be made by John Spilsbury?

A. B. C. D.

3.Which of the following jigsaws is the most difficult to solve?

A.A double-sided jigsaw with straight edges.

B.A one-sided jigsaw with straight edges.

C.A double-sided jigsaw with curved edges.

D.A one-sided jigsaw with curved edges.

4.What can we infer (推断) from the passage?

A.Puzzles are cheap entertainment that can be replayed or passed on to others.

B.By 1767, students began to learn geography by putting the puzzles back together.

C.Spilsbury continued to build more puzzles with different area maps and sell them.

D.Early wooden puzzles had pictures printed to the front and lines for cutting on the back.

A good teacher is always at least one _______(一步) ahead of his students.

The TV station finally decided to cover the final _______ (现场直播) to attract more people.

The German boy happened to discover his _______ (单身的) mother hid a Jewish girl at home.

Parents should not _______ (塑造) their children to their own thoughts.