My name is Simon. I    1     in Toronto, Canada, and I want to have a pen pal in     2    . I think China is a great and     3    country. I’m 14 years old and my     4     is in November. I can speak English and a little French. I have a brother, Paul, and a     5   , Sarah.     6    have pen pals in England and Australia. I like going to the movies     7     my friends and     8     sports. My favorite subject in school is P.E. It’s     9   . But I don’t like math. It’s too     10     .

1.A. study              B. work             C. live      D.talk

2.A. Australia          B. England          C. China        D.Canada

3.A. interesting            B. bad             C. small        D.broing

4.A. birthday           B. favorite day         C. favorite month   D.date

5.A. mother         B. brother          C. sister      D.father

6.A. You                B. They             C. We       D.Brother

7.A. for                B. to               C. with     D. by

8.A. play               B. playing          C. to play      D. plays

9.A. fun                B. a fun                C. happy        D. happy

10.A. exciting          B. interesting          C. difficult    D.different

Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.
I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception（接收）.
My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land and loved to work in the garden among her flowers and vegetables. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.
In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk. She loved to tell how my playpen（婴儿圈栏）sat in the kitchen next to the radio and there was one song I particularly loved called "Ivory Tower".
As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit the farm every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.
Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.
My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.
Then the radio announcer of this oldie station came on. "Here's one we haven't heard in a while," and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves. “Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower...”.
【小题1】The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons EXCEPT that
________.

Six years ago, Ann graduated（毕业）from college with a degree of Art. Now she is twenty-nine and works for a large computer company. She takes classes twice a week after work. She is learning to use the computer program PowerPoint. “I enjoyed the college, but my job doesn’t use the information I learned at college,” Ann says. “The course is helping me to do my job better.”

Ann’s sixty-year-old mother and father are taking courses in Art and Music. “We love these two subjects. Learning is so much fun,” they say happily. “It’s never too old to learn.”

1. Ann graduated from college when she was ??? .

A. twenty-nine???????? B. twenty-six?????? C. twenty-three?????? D. twenty

2.The underlined word ‘degree’ means ‘??? ’ in Chinese.

A.温度?????????????? B. 程度??????????? C. 学位??????????? D. 位置

3. More people are taking training courses after work in order to ??? .

A. improve their working skills??????? B. enjoy Art and Music

C. study computer programs????????? D. make more money

4.Which of the following is TRUE?

A. Ann doesn’t want to use the information she learned at college.

B. People in the past usually stopped studying after graduating from college.

C. People can only get information from their teachers.

D. Ann’s parents are too old to learn Art and Music.

Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.

 I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception（接收）.

 My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land and loved to work in the garden among her flowers and vegetables. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.

 In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk. She loved to tell how my playpen（婴儿圈栏）sat in the kitchen next to the radio and there was one song I particularly loved called "Ivory Tower".

As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit the farm every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.

Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.

My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.

Then the radio announcer of this oldie station came on. "Here's one we haven't heard in a while," and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves. “Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower...”.

1.The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons EXCEPT that

    ________.

A. it was too cold and quiet

B. she could only sing one song on the small farm

C. there was nothing more that could make her excited

D. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat

2.From the first paragraph, we know that the writer’s mother ________.

    A. passed away four years ago

 B. left the small farm with Lord

C. left for Lord to live her own way

    D. preferred to be with Lord

3.The underlined word reminisced in the fifth paragraph probably means ________.

A. recalled       B. comforted       C. shouted        D. sighed

4.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage _______.

A. The writer was able to sing before she could speak.

B. The writer preferred to live a busy life in the city.

C. The writer was still quite familiar with the song "Ivory Tower".

D. The writer treasured all her childhood memories in the small farmhouse.

5.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? _______

A. Cherish life                      B. My happy childhood

C. Our small farmhouse               D. Mom’s music

I loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it when mother sat doing letters. Looking at the ink bottle, pens and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the most wonderful thing in the world.
Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things for my sister and brother,“But the desk,”she said again,“is for Elizabeth. ”
I never saw her get angry, and never saw her cry. I knew she loved me, and she showed it in action. But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter.
They never happened and a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional (易动感情的)”, but she lived“on the surface”.
As years went by and I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way that she did forgive (原谅) me.
I posted the letter and waited for her answer. It didn’t come.
It seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to her.
I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.
Now the present of her desk told me that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work, though she had never been able to. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside… a photo of my father and a one-paper letter. Folded (折叠) and refolded many times.
Give me an answer, my letter asks, in any way you choose. Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.
【小题1】The writer began to love her mother’s desk ______.