When I walked into the house after school, the first thing I noticed was a box with items I recognized from my dad’s office.

“What are you doing at home?” I asked casually.

“Andrew, I was    31    today,” he answered quietly.

I was sure he was joking. “No, you weren’t. Why are you    32    at home?”

Then I noticed his    33    and realized he was telling me the truth. My father has always been a hard worker and prided himself on his career.    34    our family has been his joy, and I guess I have    35    his work for granted.

My father’s unemployment    36    many changes in our lives. For starters, he was at home all the time, which meant my bed had to be    37   , my room cleaned up, and my     38     done right after school. I would come home every day to find him at the computer     39     jobs. I began to notice how    40    he seemed, and how losing his job affected his self-esteem, though he tried to be    41   . For the first time, I    42    my dad as vulnerable (易受伤的). He asked my brother and me to    43    less. I gave up my pocket money,    44    it wasn’t much. I felt I was doing the right. I also found a part-time job.

After several difficult months of searching, my dad    45    to go in a totally different direction. He    46    that he never wanted to be laid off again, so he was going to start his own business. Day by day, I watched him    47    it, and I admired how much time and     48     he expended. I    49    knew he was a hard worker, but watching him in action really affected me.

Although this was one of the    50    experiences for our family, it taught me a lot about dealing with adversity (逆境), and will be my foundations for success.

Puppies for Sale 待售的小狗

A store owner was putting a sign above his door that read “Puppies For Sale”. Signs like that have a way of   1   small children, and   2   enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner’s sign. “  3   are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked.

       The store owner replied, “Anywhere from $30    4   $ 50.”

       The little boy   5   in his pocket and pulled out some   6  . “I have $ 2.37,” he said. “  7   I please look at them?”

       The store owner   8   and whistled and out of the kennel (狗窝) came a lady, who ran down the aisle (过道) of his store   9   by five puppies. One puppy was   10  . Immediately the little boy singled out the puppy and said, “What’s   11   with that little dog?”

       The store owner explained that the veterinarian (兽医) had   12   the little puppy and had discovered that it didn’t have a hip socket. It would always walk slowly and with difficulty. It would always be lame. The little boy became   13   “That’s the little puppy that I want to buy.”

       The store owner said, “No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you.”

       The little boy got quite upset. He looked   14   into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger and said, “I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay   15   price. In fact I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month    16   I have him paid for.”

       The store owner answered, “You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is   17   going to be able to jump and play with you like the other puppies.”

       To his surprise, the little boy reached   18   and rolled up his pant leg to show a badly twisted, crippled (残疾的) left leg   19   by a big metal brace (支架). He looked up at the store owner and softly replied, “Well, I don’t run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who   20  !”

A. absorbing       B. attracting    C. bargaining  D. greeting

A. sure B. luckily       C. surprisingly       D. interestingly

A. What       B. How come  C. When  D. How much

A. on    B. at       C. to       D. between

A. put   B. arrived       C. reached      D. filled

A. coin B. note    C. value  D. change

A. Can  B. Shall   C. Will    D. Must

A. performed      B. smiled C. disagreed    D. announced

A. applied    B. guided       C. followed    D. linked

A. falling behindB. setting foot       C. lending a hand   D. putting forward

A. the price       B. the matter   C. the weight  D. the name

A. tested    B. studied       C. examined   D. experimented

A. excited  B. shocked      C. worried      D. disappointed

A. straight  B. deeply C. closely       D. totally

A. half       B. lower  C. higher D. full

A. unless    B. after   C. until   D. once

A. always   B. often   C. no      D. never

A. up  B. down  C. out     D. over

A. supported      B. assisted      C. adjusted     D. surrounded

A. encourages    B. cooperates  C. understands       D. recognizes

One kilogram --- that was all it took to crown（给……加冕） the world's strongest man.

German weightlifter Matthias Steiner pulled ahead of Russian rival Evgeny Chigishev to win the Olympic men's +105 kg weightlifting gold medal on Tuesday.

Steiner lifted a total of 461kg, 203kg in the snatch(抓举) and 258kg in the clean and jerk(挺举), to beat Chigishev by a single kilogram. The German won the battle of giants in his last lift, winning his country's first gold medal in the event at this year's Games.

Steiner's winning lift was also the last effort of the sport for this Olympics at which China earned eight of the 15 golds.

Steiner was born in Austria and represented his country of birth at the Athens Olympics four years ago, placing seventh in the lower 105kg category, but had a falling out with Austria's weightlifting federation afterwards.

He applied for German citizenship in 2005 and got married, but his career went into deep freeze（困境）as he could not compete without a passport. He finally obtained the document last January.

The German, who turns 26 on Monday, had come to these Games on a mission to win the title for his wife Susann, who died in a car accident in July last year. The German team said he used the personal tragedy to motivate himself to win the gold medal.

Chigishev was the strongest in the snatch session Tuesday. He kissed his fists after a 210-kg lift that gave him a 7-kg advantage over fourth-placed Steiner going into the second event -- the clean and jerk. He let out a victorious roar（吼叫）after clearing 250 kg in his last lift, but the glory was short-lived as Steiner stunned（使瞠目）everyone with his final, winning clean and jerk effort.

Steiner had finished seventh in the 2004 Olympics in the 105kg weight category, and took the gold in the 2008 European Championship +105kg snatch competition, bronze in the clean and jerk and silver overall, with a total weight of 446kg.

World champion Viktors Scerbatihs of Latvia settled for bronze.

Steiner won the gold by lifting ______.

  A. 105 kg    B. 461 kg    C. 258 kg    D. 210 kg

Four years ago at the Athens Olympics Steiner represented ______.

  A. Australia   B. Germany   C. Austria    D. Russia

The following statements are true except ______.

  A. Steiner beat Chigishev by one kilogram

  B. Chinese weightlifting team won eight of the 15 gold medals at this year’s Games

  C. Steiner didn’t get the passport until last February

  D. Steiner got a bronze in the 2008 European Championship +105kg clean and jerk competition

. It can be inferred from the story that _____.

  A. Steiner was inspired by his unfortunate wife to win the gold medal

  B. Chigishev was also the strongest in the second event

  C. it is hard to get a German citizenship

  D. Steiner was determined to win the medal for the German team

What is the best title of the story?

  A. Narrow Victory                    B. Pitiful Failure  

C. Gold Medal for His Dearest Wife   D. Strongest Man of the World

When we look at the sky and see a bright light moving quickly across it or coming towards the earth, we talk about seeing a “shooting star” or a “falling star”. These moving lights are not, in fact, stars at all. They are small pieces of matter from outer space, which burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The correct name of them is meteoroids. Any pieces that make it to the Earth’s surface without completely burning up are known as meteorites. A meteor is actually the name given to the light we see when a meteoroid is burning up.
When a meteorite hits the Earth at speeds between 11 and 72 kilometers a second, it can do amazing damage. A very large meteorite could knock the earth out of its orbit. If this happened, all life on Earth would probably become extinct（灭绝）. The path we follow around the Sun would change and as a result the Earth would become either much hotter or much colder. This change in temperature would affect sea levels and the amount of water in rivers. There would either be huge floods, which would cover most of the land with water, or the oceans would dry up and there would be a drought, which means a long period of time without rain. Either way, nothing could survive. If a large meteorite landed in the sea it would almost certainly cause tsunamis, which would race towards the land, destroying everything in their paths.
Although it is unlikely the Earth will be struck by a meteorite large enough to do that kind of damage, there is evidence of fairly large meteorites hitting the Earth in the past. In 1908 a large area of forest in Tunguska, Siberia was destroyed by a meteorite that came apart just before it hit the ground. The moon, however, has about three billion craters陨石坑caused by meteorites impacting影响 its surface. The reason more meteorites have reached the surface of the moon than the surface of the Earth is that the moon does not have enough atmosphere for the meteorites to burn up in. some of the meteorites that have reached the Earth’s surface have done considerable damage. Some scientists believe it was a change of climate caused by meteorites hitting the Earth that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs and other large prehistoric animals.
Scientists are especially interested in meteorites because they contain information about the solar system. It is widely believed by scientists that most meteorites are produced by collisions（碰撞） between asteroids (small planets). These collisions probably happened many billions of years ago. This means the physical and chemical structure of a meteorite can give scientists information about the early days of the universe.
【小题1】The story is about ___.     

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

Once upon a time, there was a bird made of stone. She was beautiful and magic. She lived near the entrance to a beautiful      between two mountains. The bird was so      that she had to walk on the ground instead of      in the sky.

Though she couldn’t fly, she      looking up at the trees every day. She      one day being able to fly and see the      forest from up high.      , that dream was gone after a great fire.

When the fire was      put out, all that was left of the trees were stumps（树桩）.      plants and animals that had live there were gone. The stone bird was the only one that didn’t      in the fire. When she saw what had      to the trees, she felt very sad. Looking at the burnt trees, she couldn’t      crying. She cried for hours and days. She cried with such a feeling that her      were wearing away her stone     . Finally all her body was worn away and the bird had      some water.

But when the      came out, the water rose into the sky and became a happy little cloud which could fly over the trees and see everything     .

Since then, the little cloud has traveled all over the world. She enjoyed the      of all the forests and beautiful countryside. She never      what had burnt the trees, so she was very careful to pour her rain down on any tree she saw     . She saved a lot of trees.

1.A. field            B. lake                   C. sea                         D. forest

2.A. proud                  B. surprising         C. heavy           D. pretty

3.A. walking                B. trying                C. singing              D. flying

4.A. needed               B. began                C. enjoyed                D. disliked

5.A. made up              B. dreamed of       C. gave up           D. talked about

6.A. dusty                   B. poor                  C. small                    D. beautiful

7.A. However             B. Also                         C. Therefore               D. So

8.A. sadly           B. possibly                   C. finally                 D. suddenly

9.A. Some          B. All                            C. Few                          D. No

10.A. change              B. live                           C. watch                 D.die

11.A. happened         B. come                  C. moved                 D. climbed

12.A. continue  B. start                    C. keep                         D. stop

13.A. minds                B. feelings                   C. hands            D. tears

14.A. house                B. heart                       C. body                        D. habit

15.A. cared about     B. turned into       C. turned up                D. looked for

16.A. star           B. air                            C. moon                       D. sun

17.A. below                B. above                 C. backward                 D. ahead

18.A. views                 B. areas                       C. colours          D. numbers

19.A. found                B. explained               C. forgot                 D. knew

20.A. falling                B. burning                   C. growing                   D. shaking