When seeing the film in the theatre, the audience were gasping (惊叹) _____ while falling-on-the-floor laughing.

A. in disbelief B. in vain

C. in detail D. in doubt

We all know that the cost of heating our homes will continue to be a significant burden on the family budget. Now millions of people are saving on their heating bills with the EP Portable Heater. With over one million satisfied customers around the world, the new EP heats better and faster, saves more on heating bills, and runs almost silent.

The EP has no exposed heating parts that can cause a fire. The outside of EP only gets warm to the touch so that it will not burn children or pets.

The EP will not reduce oxygen in the room. With other heaters, you’ll notice that you get sleepy when the heat comes on because they are burning up oxygen.

The advanced EP also heats the room evenly, wall to wall and floor to ceiling. it comfortably covers an area up to 350 square feet. Other heaters heat rooms unevenly with most of the heat concentrated to the center of the room. And they only heat an area a few feet around the heater. With the EP, the temperature will not vary in any part of the room.

The EP comes with a 3-year warranty(保修) and a 60-day, no questions asked, satisfaction guarantee. If you are not totally satisfied, return it to our expense and your money will be given back to you.

Now, we have a special offer for 10 days, during which you can enjoy a half price discount and a free delivery. If you order after that, we reserve the right to either accept or reject order requests at the discounted price.

Take action right now!

1.What is mainly discussed in paragraph 2?

A. the heat of the EP B. the safety of the EP

C. the appearance of the EP D. the material of the EP

2.From the passage, we can learn that the EP .

A. doesn’t burn up oxygen

B. runs without any noise

C. makes people get sleepy

D. is unsuitable for children and pets

3.The underlined word “evenly” in paragraph 4 probably means .

A. continuously B. separately C. quickly D. equally

4.The main purpose of the passage is to .

A. persuade people to buy the product

B. advise people to save on heating bills

C. report the new development of portable heaters

D. compare the functions of different heater brands

One might expect that the ever-growing demands of the tourist trade would bring nothing but good for the countries that receive the holiday-makers. Indeed, a rosy picture is painted for the long-term future of the holiday industry. Every month sees the building of a new hotel somewhere, and every month another rock-bound Pacific island is advertised as the “last paradise(天堂) on earth”.

However, the scale and speed of this growth seem set to destroy the very things tourists want to enjoy. In those countries where there was a rush to make quick money out of sea-side holidays, over-crowded beaches and the concrete jungles of endless hotels have begun to lose their appeal.

Those countries with little experience of tourism can suffer most. In recent years, Nepal set out to attract foreign visitors to fund developments in health and education. Its forests, full of wildlife and rare flowers, were offered to tourists as one more untouched paradise. In fact, the nature all too soon felt the effects of thousands of holiday-makers traveling through the forest land. Ancient tracks became major routes for the walkers, with the consequent exploitation of precious trees and plants.

Not only the environment of a country can suffer from the sudden growth of tourism. The people as well rapidly feel its effects. Farmland makes way for hotels, roads and airports; the old way of life goes. The one-time farmer is now the servant of some multi-national organization; he is no longer his own master. Once it was his back that bore the pain ; now it is his smile that is exploited. No doubt he wonders whether he wasn't happier in his village working his own land.

Thankfully, the tourist industry is waking up to the responsibilities it has towards those countries that receive its customers. The protection of wildlife and the creation of national parks go hand in hand with tourist development and in fact obtain financial support form tourist companies. At the same time, tourists are being encouraged to respect not only the countryside they visit but also its people.

The way tourism is handled in the next ten years will decide its fate and that of the countries we all want to visit. Their needs and problems are more important than those of the tourist companies. Increased understanding in planning world-wide tourism can preserve the market for these companies. If not, in a few years’ time the very things that attract tourists now may well have been destroyed.

1.What does the author indicate in the last sentence of Paragraph 1?

A. The Pacific island is a paradise.

B. The Pacific island is worth visiting.

C. The advertisement is not convincing.

D. The advertisement is not impressive

2.The example of Nepal is used to suggest _________ .

A. its natural resources are untouched.

B. its forests are exploited for farmland

C. it develops well in health and education.

D. it suffers from the heavy flow of tourists.

3.What can we learn about the farmers from Paragraph 4 ?

A. They are happy to work their own lands.

B. They have to please the tourists for a living.

C. They have to struggle for their independence.

D. They are proud of working in multi-national organizations.

4.Which of the following determines the future of tourism ?

A. The number of tourists

B. The improvement of services.

C. The promotion of new products.

D. The management of tourism

WHAT’S the most important thing of life?

People’s answers vary greatly. For British scientist Robert Edwards，the answer is having a child.“Nothing is more special than a child，”he told the BBC.

Edwards，the inventor of the In Vitro Fertilization(IVF)technology—more commonly known as“test?tube(试管)baby”technology—passed away on April 10 ,2013 at the age of 87.

Edwards changed the lives of millions of ordinary people who now rejoice(充满喜悦)in the gift of their own child，”said Peter Braude，professor at King’s College London.“He leaves the world a much better place.”

Edwards started his experiments as early as the 1950s，when he had just finished his PhD in genetics. At that time，much of the public viewed test-tube babies as“scary”，according to Mark Sauer，professor at Columbia University，US.

Edwards and his colleague Patrick Steptoe faced opposition from churches，governments and media，not to mention attacks from many of their fellow scientists.“People said that we should not play God and we should not interfere with nature，”Edwards once told Times. He said that he felt “quite alone” at the time.

“But Edwards was a fighter，and he believed in what he was doing，”said Sauer. Without support from the government，the two struggled to raise funds to carry on. And in 1968 they finally developed a method to successfully fertilize human eggs outside the body.

The first test-tube baby was born on July 25，1978.Her name was Louise Brown. Despite people’s safety concerns，Brown was just as healthy as other children.

“IVF had moved from vision to reality and a new era in medicine had begun，”BBC commented.

Ever since then，public opinion has evolved considerably. Couples who were unable to have babies began thronging(蜂拥)to Edwards’ clinic. Nowadays，Reuters reports，some 4.3 million other“test-tube” children exist. Edwards received a Nobel Prize in 2010 and was knighted(封为爵士)by Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ the following year.

Before his death，Edwards was still in touch with Louise.“He is like a granddad to me，”she said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

He is a granddad to millions, in fact.

1.What is the article mainly about?

A．The first test-tube baby.

B．A new era in medicine.

C．The inventor of IVF technology.

D．The changes IVF technology has brought.

2.The writer quoted Peter Braude to ________．

A．show how difficult it was for Edwards to do his work

B．describe what kind of person Edwards was

C．explain why he is loved by all children

D．comment on his achievement

3.The underlined word“opposition”in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ________．

A．attack B．support

C．test D．influence

4.What is the CORRECT order of events in Edwards’ life?

a．He received a Nobel Prize.

b．He struggled to raise funds.

c．The first test-tube baby was born.

d．He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ.

e．He succeeded in fertilizing human eggs outside the body.

f．He started his experiments on IVF technology.

A．f—e—b—c—a—d B．f—b—e—c—d—a

C．f—b—e—c—a—d D．f—e—d—a—c—b

根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填人空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

__1.__

Home can be a great place for children to study. It's important to provide a workspace of their own where they can read books or just write a letter to their friends.

●Location (位置)

__2.__Kitchen and dining room are not so well suited for regular study，since books and pens get in the way of the day?to?day uses of those areas. Set up a place where a child can settle in and leave papers and pens at hand without having to clear everything away each night. For a child that likes being alone，set aside a corner of his bedroom，but keep it separate from things like games，music and other hobbies not related to studying.

●Keeping Things in Order

Parents should encourage their child to spread out，but to leave it neat and orderly when he isn't using his workspace. Ownership is very important for self?respect __3._ The workplace should be personal，but not another part of the playroom.

●__4.__

Encourage the whole family to help build a supportive environment that children need for success in school. Give them a good example of how to deal with problems，how to manage time and get things done in the right way.__ 5._Study will be more enjoyable and effective when supported by the whole family.

A．Attitude Is Everything

B．Bring Organization into Your Home

C．Here are several ways to choose a location.

D．Building a Good Home Learning Environment

E．Hold a can?do attitude and your child will follow your example.

F．Setting up a space in a common area of your home can be a good idea for children.

G．A child who learns to organize his space will carry organization into every corner of his life.

假如你是李华，国际学校的教师Paul邀请你星期六参加该校举行的“中国文化日”活动。但你爷爷突然生病住院，你要和父母一起去医院探视，不得不谢绝他的邀请。请根据下列要点用英语给Paul写一封电子邮件。

要点：1.谢绝邀请；

2．说明理由；

3．预祝活动成功。

注意：1.词数100左右；

2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

3．邮件开头和结尾已为你写好。

Dear Paul，

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Yours，

Li Hua

阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(不多于3个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

In 1908 Lord Henry _1._ (offer) a prize of ￡ 1,000 to the first man who would fly _2._ the English Channel. Over a year passed 3._ the first attempt was made. On July _4._ (nine), in the early morning, Hubert took off from the French coast _5._ his plane Antonio IV . Had traveled only seven miles across the Channel when his engine failed _6. he was forced to land on the sea. The Antonio floated on the water _7._ Hubert _8._ (pick up )by a ship. _9. he was rescued, he failed to receive the prize, _10. reduced him to great embarrassment .

My father was always a good gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled(翻耕的) soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.

As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller(耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things: yellow and green onions, watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow corn, and our favorite--- red tomatoes.

As I grew into a teenager, I didn’t get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.

But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be.

For the first few years after he died, I couldn’t even bear to look at anyone’s garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the corner of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.

1.Why did the author like the garden when he was a child?

A. He wanted to be a garden-crazy like his father.

B. He loved being in the garden with his father.

C. The garden was full of his favorite food.

D. The garden was just freshly tilled.

2.When all the kids started their own families, the author’s father _____.

A. stopped his gardening

B. turned to other hobbies

C. devoted more to gardening

D. focused on planting tomatoes

3.What happened to the garden when the author’s father was seriously ill?

A. There was a great harvest.

B. The garden was almost deserted.

C. No plant grew in the garden at all.

D. The author’s son took charge of the garden.

4.Why did the author start his garden with tomatoes?

A. He wanted to honor his father.

B. His son liked the fields of tomatoes.

C. He only knew how to grow tomatoes.

D. He thought tomatoes were easy to manage.

Even in a weak job market, the old college try isn’t the answer for everyone. A briefing paper from the Brookings Institution warns that “we may have overdone the message” on college, senior fellow Isabel Sawhill said.

“We’ve been telling students and their families for years that college is the only way to succeed in the economy and of course there’s a lot of truth to that,” Ms. Sawhill said. “On average it does pay off… But if you load up on a whole lot of student debt and then you don’t graduate, that is a very bad situation.”

One comment that people often repeat among the years of slow job growth has been the value of education for landing a job and advancing in a career. April’s national unemployment rate stood at 7.5%, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate for high-school graduates over 25 years old who hadn’t attended college was 7.4%, compared with 3.9% for those with a bachelor’s degree or more education. The difference is even bigger among those aged 16-24. The jobless rate for those with only a high school diploma in that age group is about 20%. At the same time, recent research by Canadian economists warns that a college degree is no guarantee of promising employment.

Ms. Sawhill pointed out that among the aspects that affect the value of a college education is the field of one’s major: students in engineering or other sciences end up earning more than those who major in the arts or education. The cost of tuition and the availability of financial aid are other considerations, with public institutions generally a better financial bargain than private ones.

She suggested two ways of improving the situation: increasing vocational-technical(职业技能) training programs and taking a page from Europe’s focus on early education rather than post-secondary learning. “The European countries put a little more attention to getting people prepared in the primary grades,” she said. “Then they have a higher requirement for whoever goes to college—but once you get into college, you’re more likely to be highly subsidized(资助).”

She also is a supporter of technical training—to teach students how to be workers, such as plumbers, welders and computer programmers—because “employers are desperate” for workers with these skills.

1.People usually think that _____.

A. the cost of technical schooling is a problem

B. one will not succeed without a college degree

C. technical skills are most important for landing a job

D. there is an increased competition in getting into a college

2.What does the underlined part “taking a page from” mean?

A. hearing from.

B. changing from.

C. differing from.

D. learning from.

3.What can we infer from the passage?

A. Public institutions charge more for education.

B. European universities are stricter with students.

C. Students with certain skills are in great demand.

D. Canadian students prefer to major in engineering.

4.Which would be the best title for the text?

A. Is the ‘Go to College’ message overdone?

B. The new requirement of Labor Market

C. Primary education in European countries

D. Is technical training more popular?

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下便条。便条中共有10处错误,每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加，删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（ ^ ），并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除；把多余的词用斜线（ \ ）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线,并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1.每处错误及修改均仅限一词；

2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

Dear Mary,

Our city had changed a lot in the past 5 years. Firstly, more high buildings have appeared, that are modern and beautiful. Many overpasses have set up, so it has become very convenient for people to travel. However, many families have got car of their own. The people’s life here has become rich or colorful. People can enjoy themselves travelling on the holiday. To my delighted, I can taste delicious food of different countries. And now it is easy for me to keep touch with you than before, for I can email you in my office.

Yours,

Christine