Mrs. Clark moved to the small village when she was twenty-four. And she has lived there for thirty-nine years. She has a poor farm. She works hard on it, but she is often hungry. Her son Henry joined the army(参军) eight years ago and then found a job at a post office in London after he left the army.
One day, he wrote to his poor mother and asked her to go to the capital. The old woman was very happy when she received the letter. The next morning she started. Because it was the first time, her daughter took her to a small station and bought a ticket for her. A train came and she hurried to get on. Before long, a conductor came up to her and said, ‘Ticket, please.’ The old woman showed her ticket to the conductor. The man looked at it and said, ‘You must take a train to London. But it is a train to Manchester. I am afraid you’ve taken a wrong train.’ ‘Is it possible?’ Mrs. Clark said angrily, ‘I am sure it’s your driver’s fault (过错).
【小题1】Mrs. Clark is __________ years old now.

The holiday is coming to us. Finally, after months of study, you have some time to yourself. So, why not read a book? Well, some people will say, “Why do you like reading books? We have Internet. It offers a lot of more colorful fun. Books are history!” But I am sure you can learn a lot from books than Internet.
One clear reason is that a well-chosen book can give you a lot of wonderful  words, as long as you have a good dictionary, of course. Believe me; it’s far easier to get new words from a book or an article than it is from the TV or the Internet.
But another more important point is that books give you something that the Internet cannot. The general webpage (网页) is picture-heavy and the text is as easy to read as possible. While “easy” may attract (吸引) you, unluckily it’s not helpful for any long-term development of reading skills and the general language level. Because of that, reading on the Internet can’t take the place of reading books.
But perhaps the best reason is that just choosing what you read and doing it independently means that it’s something you do by and for yourself. You can choose what you want to read. It’s hard work, but you’ll find that what once seemed like a duty is now a pleasure.
【小题1】Does the writer advise people to read books in their holidays?
【小题2】What can people get from a well-chosen book?
【小题3】What’s the general webpage like?
【小题4】How many reasons for reading a book does the writer mention in the passage?
【小题5】What does the writer want to tell us in the passage?

“Homestay is a form of study abroad program. It allows the visitor to rent a room from a local family to better understand the local lifestyle. It also helps to improve the visitor’s language ability,” said a teacher during a school meeting last term, “Students who wish to learn more about foreign cultures or to get foreign experience should join this kind of holiday. I am sure you won’t be disappointed(失望的).”
After this special meeting, I always thought about this kind of holiday. Last month, I had a chance at last to go on such a holiday with some of my schoolmates and we went to London, a place where I had wanted to go since years ago.
As we were still young, we had a group leader who planned things for us and looked after us. After we got to London, we went  to stay with different families. I was lucky that my host family(寄宿家庭) was a white couple who had a daughter about my age. They treated me as a daughter of their family during my stay there. They were interested in me and I learnt a lot of things from them, too.

The holiday was filled with activities every day. After breakfast, a local teacher would come to take us in his car. Then we would have classes or go on a sight-seeing trip to different places of interest like the Big Ben, the London Bridge, and the Buckingham Palace. We would go back to our own homes after the activities.
The holiday was a valuable experience for me. I enjoyed every minute of it. Yet, time really flew fast. Three weeks later, we had to leave “home” for Hong Kong.
【小题1】In the “homestay” program, a visitor can              .

A. 根据句意和提示写出单词，完成句子。
【小题1】—I can’t stand it any more. The computer is so slow.
—Perhaps you need to    ▲     (重启) it. 
【小题2】Many of the Australians like to take some ___▲_____(户外) exercises.
【小题3】I believe you will enjoy your ________（成功）if you don’t give up.  
【小题4】His father promised to buy him a _____ (笔记本) but he didn’t keep it.
【小题5】The story happened on a cold windy   ▲  （十一月）afternoon.
【小题6】Thank you. Your explanation is so ___ (清楚) that I am sure I’ve completely got it.
【小题7】Mr Zhang bought a car yesterday. It is the      (最新的) of all the cars in our school.
【小题8】Mrs Wang came to see me     ▲     (不久)after Mr Zhang left my house.
【小题9】The girl couldn’t wait to share her    ▲      (happy) with her family.
【小题10】All the farmers in my country are enjoying a cheap    ▲     (medicine) care now thanks to the party’s great policy(政策).
【小题11】He said he was terribly sorry for the few      (mistake) he had made the day before.
【小题12】The king decided to build a big palace    ▲      (special) for his new daughter.
【小题13】All of us must do the washing and cooking by     ▲     (we) so that we can live better in the future.
【小题14】In his speech he said that all his Chinese friends are worth    ▲    (make) and he would come back to see them in a short time.
【小题15】Xiangshui Senior High School will celebrate its   ▲     (sixty) birthday this coming October.