Though he is ______ orphan, he is leading ______ happy life.

A．an; the           B．an; /              C．/; a              D．an; a

Levi Strauss was born in Bavaria (巴伐利亚) in Europe in 1829. He emigrated（移居）to the United States of America when he was seventeen years old. His brothers sold cloth, and he worked for them even though he could not speak English very well. At this time many people were moving to California because gold was discovered there. Strauss went to look for gold, too.

Strauss took a lot of cloth with him to San Francisco. He thought that he could make tents out of the cloth and sell them to people working in the gold fields. But when he got there, he saw that people had a greater need for clothes than tents. Clothes did not last very long in the gold fields. At first Strauss made pants out of canvas（帆布）. They were very strong ---- much stronger than other pants. Soon everyone was wearing them , so he decided only to make pants. He opened a small store and made a lot of money from selling pants.

After a while, Strauss found a material even stronger than canvas. It came from a town in France called Nimes. The French called the material serge de Nimes, which means “cloth from Nimes”. The Americans called it denim. Strauss also bought some cloth from Genoa, a town in Italy. To Americans this name sounds like “jeans”, so they called his pants jeans. The cloth that Strauss used was always blue, so people also called his pants blue jeans and blue denims. Other people called them Levi’s. Levi Strauss jeans are some of the best-selling jeans in the world today. They last a long time and are very comfortable.

56. When Levi Strauss went to San Francisco for the first time, he wanted to ______.

A. find a strong material to make pants

B. work for his brothers

C. make money by selling tents

D. open a store to make pants

57. In the beginning Strauss made pants from ______.

   A. serge de Nimes         B. silk

C. denim                D. canvas

58. The name “jeans” was first used by ______.

A. Bavarians             B. Americans

C. Italians               D. Frenchmen

59. The story is about ______.

A. where cloth came from

B. the man who first made jeans

C. how to make lots of money

D. life on the gold fields

I want to tell you a story that changed my life many years ago. We were living in College Station, Texas and my wife and I were on our way home from Houston, Texas one Saturday morning. We decided to stop at a local restaurant to get something to eat since we had enough time. When we finished, we got back into our car and before I started it, we noticed a homeless man standing in front of the building. His clothes were worn and it looked as though he didn’t have any money. It was cold and I was sure he wanted something warm to drink; however, it was not this that I remember, because that is not what "moved" me. A dog was also walking up to the front of the building. Being a dog owner, I knew that the dog was a mother, and that she had just had some pups (小狗). She was hungry and weak and I felt bad for her. I knew if she didn’t eat soon, she and her pups would not live. People walking by didn’t even notice her. She was not as pretty and clean as most dogs, but she still deserved (值得) better. We still did not do anything, but someone else did. The homeless man, who I thought could not afford anything to eat, went into the store and bought dog food with all the money he had.

1.Where did the story happen?

A．In front of the local restaurant.

B．In front of a building.

C．In the car parking lot.

D．Near the author’s house.

2.What do we know about the dog?

A．The author wanted to help the dog, but he was un-able to.

B．The dog and her pups were in danger of dying from hunger.

C．The dog was not cute enough to be loved.

D．The author didn’t like dogs.

3.Which of the following moved the author?

A．The homeless man had no money to buy food for himself.

B．The homeless man wore worn clothes on cold days.

C．The homeless man bought food for a dog with all his money.

D．Most people walking by the dog didn’t notice her.

4.What can we conclude(得出结论) from the passage?

A．The author was so hungry that he went into the local restaurant to eat.

B．The author didn’t understand what the homeless man did.

C．The dog shouldn’t be taken care of carefully because it looked ugly.

D．Things are not always what they seem.

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

A．My Memory                           B．A Poor Dog

C．The Homeless Person                    D．A Mother Dog

With long brown hair, deep blue eyes, a tall and thin figure(身躯) Brad Pitt seems to be a born actor.He made his first appearance in a film in 1990.Though he was in the film for only 14 minutes, people flooded the cinema to see him.In his next film Pitt played the role of a fisherman.To make the film better, he learned the skill of fishing from a fisherman.

Pitt, caring more about roles than money, has a special favor for the “hard” roles.After reading the screenplay(剧本) of “Legends of the Fall”, he was attracted by the leading character.He asked for a lower pay from the shooting team and was willing to work in hard conditions in the Rocky Mountains for six months.“The film gives the chance to know life.I shall always remember the time when we were making the film,” Pitt said after completing it fully.

Pitt started his dream of art when he was in university.Though born in a common family in 1964, he showed his interest in film at an early age.After leaving high school, he went to university to study law.Because he loved film more than law, shortly before he could graduate, he dropped out for a life of his own, with only 325 dollars in hand, sometimes as a porter or a waiter.Thanks to his hard work, he finally opened up a new field of his own.

1.Pitt acted his first film at the age of        .

A．6                B．14               C．26               D．36

2.The underlined expression “a born actor” means        .

A．he was born in an actor family

B．he became an actor soon after he was born

C．he was an actor when he was born

D．he has a strong natural ability to be an actor

3.From the passage we know        .

A．Pitt became known as an actor at an early age.

B．To achieve his goal, Pitt suffered a lot before success

C．it was wrong of Pitt not to finish his university education

D．In order to develop his interest, Pitt failed to enter university

4.Which of the following words can best describe the character of Pitt?

A．Devoted.          B．Generous.         C．Selfish.           D．Mean.

What is your favorite English letter? Many of you may say Q. Why? Because so many of you chat with your friends on QQ. What do you like about QQ? What do you talk about? The CCTV reporter, Miss Wang, interviews three kids. Let’s listen to what they say.

    When do you chat on QQ? What do you talk about?

    Lin yuhan, Xi’an: On weekends. We talk about homework and chat with each other.

    Tang Xuting, Shanghai: At weekends and when I don’t have much homework. We exchange test answers and chat.

    Yang yuhang, Dalian: Our class goes online together at 4:00----6:00pm on weekends. We complain about homework, chat and talk about computer games.

    What do you put on your QQ blog(博客)？

    Lin: I put good articles I have found online on my blog. I also write articles myself. They are about funny things that have happened in my class.

    Tang: I put picture on my blog. Not my own photos, but pictures from my favorite Japanese cartoons(动画片)like Tennis Prince Conan.

    Yang: I put DV films on my blog. I shoot(拍摄)them during sports meetings and school parties. The most popular one is about a dancing teacher,  he is so funny that everyone watches it.

    How do you like QQ?

    Lin: It’s a good space for us to make a record of our lives of both good times and sad times.

    Tang: My friends and I may not have time to chat at school. But we can do it on QQ. It’s very helpful to our friendships.

    Yang: If you chat with friends on the telephone, your parents sometimes listen to your conversation. There’s no such problem with QQ. You can relax and talk freely.

1.What does Yang yuhang talk about on QQ on weekends?

①homework      ②chat     ③test answers    ④computer games

A．①②             B. ②③             C. ①②④        D.②③④

2.What does Lin Yuhan put on her QQ blog?

A. Some pictures.   B. Good articles.   C.DV films       D.Japanese cartoons

3.Which one is TURE according to this article?

A. Lin says QQ is very helpful to their friendships.

B. Yang says he can chat freely with many friends and relax on QQ.

C. Tang says QQ is a good space for them to make a record of their lives.

D. Tang says he chats on QQ on weekends though he has lots of homework.