It is high time for us to take measures to protect these old traditions and customs before they _____.

The English in the future will be quite different from the English of today. It is possible that some English words may even ________ completely.

One day，four lawyers were riding their horses along a country road. There had been a rain. Water was dripping (滴) from the trees，and the grass was wet. They rode slowly，talking and laughing. Suddenly they heard some noises from the tree above them. “What is the matter?” asked the first lawyer. “Oh, it's only some old birds!” said the second lawyer. “The storm made one of the babies fall out of the nest. It is too young to fly, and the mother bird is very worried.” “What a pity! It’ll die down there in the grass,” said the third lawyer. “It doesn't matter. It's only a bird,” said the second lawyer. Then they rode on, talking and laughing as before. But the fourth lawyer, whose name was Abraham Lincoln, stopped. He got down from his horse and took the little one in his big warm hands.

“Never mind, my little fellow ,” said Mr. Lincoln. “I will put you back in your little nest.” He climbed up the tree and put the bird softly into their warm little home. A few minutes later, Mr. Lincoln joined them again. His shoes were covered with mud and he was wet. Then the other three laughed at him. They thought it was foolish for a strong man to do so much just for a young bird. “Gentlemen,” said Mr. Lincoln, “I could not sleep tonight if I had left the helpless bird in the grass.” Later Abraham Lincoln became very famous as a lawyer. He also became the president of America. He was one of the greatest American presidents.

1.The reason why the mother bird was worried was that __________.

A．there was a rain

B．the lawyers were under its tree

C．one of its babies fell out of the nest

D．it could not fly

2.The underlined phrase “little fellow” in paragraph 2 means __________.

A．the mother bird

B．Lincoln's little friends

C．the other three lawyers

D．the baby bird

3.The other three lawyers laughed at Lincoln because __________.

A．he climbed the tree

B．he was wet

C．his shoes were covered with mud

D．they thought it foolish for him to do so

4.From the passage we know Lincoln __________.

A．liked riding horses

B．was very kind and loved birds and animals

C．liked being laughed at

D．wanted to be the president of America then

Elephants would ______ if men were allowed to shoot as many as they wished.

A. die down            B. die out   C. die away            D. die off

完形填空(共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分)
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36—55各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，
选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Two old beggars were sitting on a busy corner. They watched helplessly as scores of people walked by, some purposely ___36___ them and others too caught up in their own cares to even notice their __37__. Every so often, a __38__woman or a small child would drop a few coins in the __39__ which lay in front of them.
As the crowd began to die down, they started to __40_ their things and head for their evening shelters. Just as they were getting ready to leave, they noticed a man walking toward them. He was obviously a _ 41   man ----they could tell that from his finely tailored business suit.
The first beggar whispered to the second with _____, “ He’s coming our way!”
The two tried not to look ___43____ at the man as he stepped closer to them, but they couldn’t ___44___ gazing up with anticipation (期待) as he reached into his pocket and took something out.
“Trunk” was the only sound they heard __45___ what looked like a piece of hard _46__, wrapped in tissue paper hit each of their waiting hats. The rich man __47__ and continued on his way, not making a backward glance.
“How insulting (侮辱人的)!” said the first beggar. “He could have __48___ left us a few coins or a spare bill, but he mocks (嘲弄) us with a piece of rock candy. Who does he think we are ----__49___? There’s no way we can even eat this ---------we have no __50___.” He picked up the object and threw it into the gutter(排水沟).
“I haven’t had anything like this for ages,” the _51_beggar thought. “I can’t chew it, but I can suck on it for while, and the sugary juices will stay in my _52__ for a long time. How nice of that man to offer me something so sweet.”
With that, he _53_ the white tissue paper, but to his _54__, there was no hard rock candy inside. _55_, into his fell a shiny white pearl worth thousands of dollars.