If you are looking to putting a tree in your home for Christmas, there is always one debate that seems to arise in most households: whether you want a real tree or fake tree. Year after year, as we find ourselves cleaning old pine needles (松针) for months on end, we decide that we will never get another real tree. So that begs the question: Which kind of tree is better?

There is certainly a lot to be said for real trees. There is something fun about gathering the family together, going to a Christmas tree farm, and selecting or even cutting down your own tree. Real Christmas trees have that lovely holiday pine needle smell and they look great in your home.

Of course, on the other hand, they also leave a complete mess behind and needles that seem to keep appearing for weeks or even months after the tree comes down. You must also find a way to deal with your real Christmas tree after you’re done, which may mean cutting it into pieces so it will fit in the trash. Many dustmen will refuse to take away a tree that is left beside your regular trash, especially if it is a big tree or an old, yellow one with falling needles, making it hard to pick up. They don’t want a face full of sharp needles any more than you do!

With a fake Christmas tree, there is no mess, but there is also no Christmas smell and no exciting trip to the Christmas tree farm. Of course, these trees look the same in appearance as a real tree when decorated. Many of them come already with lights, so using that old, messy string of lights will be a thing of the past. For some people, a can of pine air freshener is enough to recreate the pleasant smell of a real tree.

As to which tree is the better choice, it is really a matter of personal preference. Both real and fake trees certainly have their benefits, and knowing which is better for you this Christmas really depends on what your family wants.

1.Which of the following shows the benefits of real Christmas trees?

a.providing more fun

b.easy to clean up

c.giving off a natural smell

d.easy to decorate

A. a, c B. a, d C. b, c D. b, d

2.The third paragraph is mainly about ________.

A. why many dustmen refuse to take away a real tree

B. how long a real tree can live

C. how to cut a real tree into pieces

D. what weaknesses a real tree has

3.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 shows that fake Christmas trees _______.

A. look more beautiful B. are more fashionable

C. can be used longer D. are more convenient

4.What is the author’s attitude towards this debate?

A. Objective. B. Disapproving.

C. Skeptical. D. Optimistic.

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。

Once upon a time, a poor traveler stopped under a tree. From his bag he took out a bowl of 1._______ (boil) rice and started to eat. Nearby was a small shop, 2.______ a woman was selling fried fish to travelers able to pay for it. When the man finished eating and got up to leave, she shouted, “You have not paid me for your meal!”

“But I ordered 3.______ from you!” he said.

“4.______ everyone sees, you enjoyed the smell of my fried fish with your rice,” argued the woman. “If you hadn’t smelt the fish, your meal would not have been so5._______ (please)!”

Soon a crowd gathered, 6._______ supported the traveler, but also agreed that the wind was blowing from the shop to the place where he had eaten, 7.______ (carry) the smell of the fried fish to him.

At last, the woman took him to a judge and after8._______ (tell) the judge the story, she insisted that 9._______ the man had enjoyed her fish smell, he should pay 25 cents. After hearing the evidence, the judge asked the man to drop a 25-cent coin on the ground. “Here is your payment, the sound of 25 cents 10._______ the smell of the fried fish.”

—Are we going to be late for the movie?

—________. We still have half an hour before the movie begins.

A. Hurry up B. Enjoy your time

C. Good luck D. Take your time

Little ________ about the mysterious mountain, so away __________.

A. did they know; went they

B. they knew; went they

C. did they know; they went

D. they knew; they went

—It’s my mother’s fault that my room is in a mess.

—Nonsense! Your mother is not _________ for your laziness.

A. blaming B. blamed

C. to blame D. to be blamed

He failed in the driving test again. He_____________.

A. must have disappointed B. must have been disappointed

C. might be disappointed D. couldn’t be disappointed

Why do young adult children become independent so much later than they did in 1970，when the average age of independent living was 21? Why have reduced class sizes and increased per-pupil expenditures (花销）not higher academic achievement levels? Why is the mental health of today’s kids so poor when ________with that of children in the 1960s and before? Why do today’s ________ become defensive when told by teachers that their children have misbehaved in school?

The answer in two words: parental ________. Those two words best summarize the ________ between “old” child raising and new, post-1960s parenting. Then, the overall philosophy was that parents shouldn’t be ________ involved with their kids. They were available ________ crisis, but they stood a (an) ________ distance from their kids and allowed them to ________ the benefits of the trial-and-error (反复试验)process. It was the child’s ________, back then, to keep his or her parents from getting involved. That was________ children learned to be responsible and determined.

Today’s parents help their kids with almost everything. These are parents who are ________ when it comes to an understanding of their purpose in their kids’lives. Their involvement leads them to personalize everything that happens to their kids; thus, the defensiveness. But considering that schools and mental health professionals have been pushing parent involvement for nearly four decades, the confusion and defensiveness are ________.

University researchers analyzed three decades of data relating to parent participation in children’s academics. Their conclusions ________ what I’ve been saying since the 1980s: parental help with homework________a child’s academic achievement and is not reflected on standardized tests.

Parents who manage a child’s social life affect the ________ of good social skills. Parents who manage a child’s after-school activities raise kids who don’t know how to ________ their own free time. Parents who get involved in their kids’ ________ with peers raise kids who don’t know how to avoid trouble.

These kids have anxieties and fears of all sorts and don’t want to leave their ________ . And their parents, when the time comes, don’t know how to ________ being parents. You can imagine what will become of their future.

1.A. counted on B. taken in C. touched on D. resulted in

2.A. connected B. linked C. compared D. matched

3.A. youths B. adolescents C. psychologists D. parents

4.A. assistance B. protection C. involvement D. preference

5.A. choices B. similarities C. differences D. relations

6.A. slightly B. passively C. fairly D. highly

7.A. in fear of B. in spite of C. in view of D. in case of

8.A. safe B. equal C. long D. short

9.A. experiment B. gain C. experience D. enjoy

10.A. fault B. job C. turn D. attitude

11.A. how B. when C. why D. what

12.A. amazed B. disappointed C. confused D. satisfied

13.A. unreasonable B. changeable C. understandable D. avoidable

14.A. realized B. convinced C. confirmed D. reflected

15.A. lowers B. decides C. helps D. promotes

16.A. development B. performance C. establishment D. appearance

17.A. fill B. devote C. value D. save

18.A. communication B. cooperation C. conflicts D. competitions

19.A. career B. school C. home D. profession

20.A. ignore B. stop C. consider D. Start

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的词（每空1词）。

Cheating on exams is popular in the various kinds of exams in colleges. Students don't feel shame to cheat on exams. Most of them don't care about cheating on exams. They know that results of cheating on exams aren't serious punishment, which leads to frequent cheatings on exams.

At the University of Nevada, after students photographed test questions with their cellphone cameras, transmitted them to classmates outside the exam room and got the answers back in text messages, the university put in place a new monitoring system.

With their electronic tools, students these days find it easier to cheat. And so, faced with a lot of the latest technology in recent years, college officials find themselves in a new game of cat and mouse, trying to outwit(胜过) would-be cheats this exam season with a range of strategies--cutting off Internet access from laptops, or demanding the surrender(交出) of cellphones before tests.

Mr Dapremont said technology had made cheating easier, but added that plagiarism(抄袭) in writing papers was probably a bigger problem because students can easily lift other people's writings off the Internet.

Still, some students said they thought cheating these days was more a product of the attitude, not the tools at hand. Pressure to succeed sometimes clouds everything and makes people do things that they shouldn't do. Students today feel more pressure to do well in order to graduate from school and secure a job.

Whatever the reasons for cheating, college officials say the battle against it is wearing them out. First, people cheating on exams will lose interest in studying. Second, he thinks studying isn't meaningful. Even though he doesn't do anything, he can get scores. Third, people cheating on exams will influence others. Plenty of people working hard think that their records are lower than people cheating on exams. Thus, we must ban cheating on exams. We should reduce opportunity of cheating on exams.

Most Americans still believe that honesty is an important part of the American character. For that reason, there are numerous watch-dog committees at all levels of society. Although signs of dishonesty in school, business, and government seem much more numerous in recent years than in the past, could it be that we are getting better at revealing such dishonesty?

Many educators feel that as students gain confidence in themselves and their abilities, they are less likely to cheat. Surprisingly, some efforts to prevent cheating may actually encourage cheating--a person may feel "they don't trust me anyway", and be tempted to "beat the system". Distrust can be contagious (传染的). But, so can trust.

随着经济的发展和人们生活水平的提高，近年各地旅游景点人满为患，尤其是一些历史名胜，如长城、紫禁城和各地大型博物馆等等。看到这种趋势，一些旅游景点开始考虑提高门票，并把此消息在各大网站上发布，这在全国引起了一场热烈的讨论，观点如下：

参考词汇：maintenance 维修（n.） financial 经济的，金融的

注意：1. 对所给要点，逐一陈述，适当发挥，不要简单翻译。

2. 字数150左右。开头已经写好，不计入总字数。

With the development of our country’s economy and the people’s living standards improving,a lot of tourism attractions in different areas have witnessed a great increase of tourists in recent years， in which case some tourism sites are considering adopting higher tickets fees and have given out the news on various websites. People have held a heated discussion about it and opinions on it are divided ._____________________________.

The hikers made marks on the way ________ they wouldn’t get lost in the mountain.

A．as if B．so that C．even though D．in case