Rome had the Forum. London has Speaker’s Corner. Now always-on-the-go New Yorkers have Liz and Bill.

    Liz and Bill, two college graduates in their early 20s, have spent a whole year trying to have thousands of people talk to them in subway stations and on busy street corners. Just talk. 

    Using a 2-foot-tall sign that says, "Talk to Me," they attract conversationalists, who one evening included a mental patient, and men in business suits.

    They don't collect money. They don't push religion (宗教). So what's the point?

  “To see what happens ,”said Liz. “We simply enjoy life with open communication(交流).”

    Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, they decided to walk from New York City to Washington, a 270-mile trip. They found they loved talking to people along the way and wanted to continue talking with strangers after their return.

    “It started as a crazy idea,” Liz said. “We were so curious about all the strangers walking by with their life stories. People will talk to us about anything: their jobs, their clothes, their childhood experiences, anything.”

     Denise wanted to talk about an exam she was about to take. She had stopped by for the second time in two days, to let the two listeners know how it went.

     Marcia had lost her husband to a serious disease. “That was very heavy on my mind,” Marcia said. “To be able to talk about it to total strangers was very good,” she explained.

     To celebrate a year of talking, the two held a get-together in a city park for all the people they had met over the past year. A few hundred people showed up, as well as some television cameramen and reporters.

     They may plan more parties or try to attract more people to join their informal talks. Some publishers have expressed interest in a book, something they say they'll consider.

1.What did Liz and Bill start doing after September 2001?

    A. Chatting with people.         B. Setting up street signs.

    C. Telling stories to strangers.     D. Organizing a speaker's corner.

2.What they have been doing can be described as______.

    A. pointless     B. normal        C. crazy         D. successful

3.Why are Denise and Marcia mentioned in the text?

    A. They knew Liz and Bill very well.

    B. They happened to meet the writer of the text.

    C. They organized the get-together in the city park.

    D. They are examples of those who talked to Liz and Bill.

4.What will Liz and Bill do in the future?

   A. Go in for publishing.        B. Do more television programs.

  C. Continue what they are doing. D. Spend more time reading books.

5. How do they like the idea of writing a book?

    A. They have decided to wait a year or two. 

    B. They will think about it carefully.

    C. They agreed immediately.

    D. They find it hard to do that.

Going green seems to be a fad(时尚) for a lot of people these days.Whether that is good or bad,we can’t really say, but for the two of us, going green is not a fad but a life style.
On April 22,2011,we decided to be green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond the easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 diffenent things to do and this was no easy task.
With the idea of going green every single day a year,Our Greean Year started. My wife and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.
Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyles. We now shop at organic(有机的) stores. We consume less meat,choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don’t need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites.Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.
Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planets.
【小题1】What might be the best title for the passage?

Banks are not ordinarily prepared to pay out all account; they depend on depositors(储户) not to demand payment all at the same time. If depositors come to fear that a bank is not sound, that it can not pay off all its depositors, then that fear might cause all the depositor to appear on the same day .If they did, the bank could not pay all accounts. However, if they did not all appear at once, then there would always be funds to pay those who wanted their money when they wanted it. Mrs Elsie Vaught has told us of a terrifying run on the bank that she experienced.
One day in December of 1925, several banks failed to open in the city where Mrs Vaught lived. The other banks expected a run the next day, and so the officers of the bank in which Mrs Vaught worked as a teller(出纳员) had enough funds on hand to pay off as many depositors as might appear. The officer simply instructed the tellers to pay on demand. The next morning a crowd gathered in the bank and on the sidewalk outside. The length of the line made many believe that the bank could not possibly pay off everyone. People began to push and then to fight for places near the tellers’ windows. Clothing was torn, legs and arms broken, but the crowd continued for hours. The power of the panic atmosphere was so great that two tellers, though they knew that the bank was sound and could pay out all depositors, drew their own money from the bank. Mrs Vaught says that she had difficulty preventing herself from doing the same.
1. When would a bank run happen?
A. A bank is closed for one or more days.
B. Too many depositors attempts to draw out their money at the same time.
C. Other banks don’t have enough money.
D. Clerks of a bank take their own money out of the bank
2. The crowd in the bank and on the sidewalk gathered because of _________.
A. demand      B. hunger           C. doubt         D. anger
3. The basic cause of a run on the bank is __________.
A. loss of confidence    B. lack of enough funds
C. crowds of people     D. inexperienced tellers

Last Tuesday I took my two daughters, aged five and seven, to town by car. It began to rain__26__ so I decided I would leave the children in the car__27__ I rushed into a shop. I warned the girls not to__28_ anything and told them I would be __29__ within a few minutes. Then I locked all the doors and left __30__happily looking out of the window.
I returned to the car in less than five minutes but the girls had __31__! I could hardly believe my __32__. The car doors were __33__ locked, the windows tightly shut and on the back seat __34__only two coats. Being____ __35__, I ran to the corner of the street __36__ there was no sign of them. I __37__up to an old lady nearby and asked __38__ she had seen two small girls but she said “No”.
Feeling quite sick with fear, I sat on the driver’s seat, and __39__ to stop trembling(发抖). Suddenly, I __40__ a merry laugh __41__ me. I got out of the car, ran round to open the boot(车尾行李箱) and __42__ were two very
red-face and _43__ children. They had obviously pulled out the back seat,  __44__ behind it and then been unable to push the seat forward again. __45__ tears in my eyes, I leaned forward and pulled their ears.

【小题5】

A．them B．her C．herself D．themselves

【小题11】

A．where B．which C．that D．when

There is a fine line between a parent who is active and open-minded and one that doesn’t know when to let go (放手). As my daughter, Nicole, prepares to leave home for college, I’m discovering how hard it is to stay on the   36   side of this line. When I hold   37   the apron strings (围裙带) connecting us, Nicole, eager to   38   independence, tries to loosen my grasp. What results is a (an)  39   mother-daughter, push-me, pull-you kind of tango.

   For the past two years, it’s gone like this:

   My question: “Have you thought of taking an advanced placement class (高阶课程) so that you can earn college credit?”

   Nicole’s  40  : “No, I’m not interested in that.”   ………

   Two months ago, she was   41   to a great university. However, I was still the mother having a   42   time letting go. The night before the introductory meeting of the university, I had read the course catalog carefully and   43   courses which I thought looked good. We met on the campus the next afternoon, and Nicole’s face   44   with excitement. “I have had my entire schedule figured out,” she said. “Already?” I was astonished,  45   she should have discussed it with me. I examined the schedule. Nicole hadn’t taken a (an)  46   one of the courses I had suggested. Every course she had chosen   47   suited her interests. Just then I saw a mature, capable young woman with a   48   mind and the ability to shape her future. She no longer needed her mother’s   49   every decision she made. I felt proud, though still a bit          50  .

   I   51   the lessons carefully. Nicole has struggled to learn over the past 18 years:  52  , sympathy, and hard work. There have been a few holes along the way.  53  , she is well-equipped and eager to   54   the future. The next step, I recognized, was mine to take: giving my daughter and myself the   55   we both needed.

1. A. left              B. right    C. either              D. each

2.A. onto               B. up           C. back             D. out

3. A. keep              B. refuse       C. taste            D. bear

4. A. embarrassing      B. relaxing     C. lively           D. beautiful

5.A. comment            B. word         C. concept          D. response

6.A. received           B. invited      C. treated          D. accepted

7. A. good              B. great        C. hard             D. easy

8.A. taken          B. underlined   C. offered          D. emphasized

9.A. lit up         B. built up     C. turned up        D. made up

10.A. imagining     B. thinking     C. hoping           D. adding

11.A. only              B. just         C. even             D. single

12. A. mostly           B. hardly       C. exactly          D. slightly

13. A. sharp            B. normal       C. different        D. typical

14.A. encouraging       B. evaluating   C. disagreeing      D. agreeing

15.A. anxious           B. excited      C. sad              D. tense

16. A. reviewed         B. observed     C. checked          D. studied

17.A. ability           B. honesty      C. responsibility   D. punctuality

18. A. Therefore        B. Instead      C. Still            D. Besides

19. A. embrace          B. discover     C. determine        D. lead

20.A. character     B. strength     C. relief           D. independence