I’ve loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it as mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens,   and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the more wonderful thing in the world.

Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things for my sister  and brother. “But the desk,” she’d said again, “it’s for Elizabeth. ”

I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; 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(表面)”.

As years passed 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 she chose that she did forgive(原谅) me.

I posted the letter and waited for her answer. None came.

My hope turned to disappointment(失望), then little interest and, finally, peace— it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to mother. 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, as she’d never been able to, that she was    pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found    some papers inside —a photo of my father and a one-page 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.

1.The writer began to love her mother’s desk ______.

2.The passage shows that ______.

3.The word “gulf” in the passage means ______.

4.What did mother do with her daughter’s letter asking forgiveness?

5.What’s the best title of the passage?

6.选A。由But she lived “on the surface ”. 和全文内容可知，作者的母亲表面上很冷漠，但心里充满了对作者的爱，正确

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

One day a few years ago we had an uninvited guest—a sparrow.  36  the little bird had flown into our open garage. Then I  37  the bird before I saw it.

“What’s that?”I asked when I first heard the sound.

“It’s coming from the  38  .”my wife, Anita, said. “Maybe it’s one of the little  39  .”

I looked into the garage. No children at all. But there was that sound again, coming from right up there. And that’s  40   I saw the sparrow. It was flying  41  just inches below the ceiling. It was clearly  42  to get out, but couldn’t see the way out was not up, but  43  and and out through the garage door. So the bird continued flapping its wings and bumping its little head 44  the ceiling.

I tried to terrify it out, but only succeeded in driving it into the  45  open space between the door and the ceiling. Then I tried to show the bird how to fly down a few feet  46   it could get outside, but that only seemed to  47  it more.

“Why don’t we just leave for a few minutes,” Anita  48  .“I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually.”

We went back into the house, where we  49  to hear the ongoing struggle between the sparrow and the ceiling. Then suddenly, it was  50  and our uninvited guest was gone.

I’ve  51  that little sparrow through the years, and I’ve decided that birds are not different much from people. We think we were  52  to fly ever upward, and we don’t even consider the  53  that something good might happen if we just fly down a little bit. Once we figure out that we can make  54  without banging（碰）our heads against ceilings, we can usually save ourselves much  55  .

36.A. Still              B. Somehow          C. Instead              D. Perhaps

【答案】B

【解析】不知怎么的，这只小鸟飞进了我们开着的车库。B.不知怎么的。

37.A. heard            B. caught               C. searched           D. observed

【答案】A

【解析】根据下文when I first heard the sound， 可知本句的意思是“未见其鸟，先闻其鸣”。

38.A. house           B. backyard           C. garage               D. basement

【答案】C

【解析】根据36题所在的句子可知， 小鸟进入了garage,所以声音应该从garage传来。

39.A. birds            B. guests               C. cats                  D. kids

【答案】D

【解析】根据下文no children at all.可知, 作者的妻子认为是期中一个孩子

40.A. when            B. how                  C. why                  D. whether

【答案】A

【解析】when引导表语从句。“就在那时我看到了那只麻雀。”

41.A. quickly         B. anxiously           C. cautiously          D. slowly

【答案】B

【解析】anxiously不安的，焦虑的。因为被困，所以很焦虑。

42. A. deciding       B. hesitating           C. trying                D. choosing

【答案】C

【解析】try to get out努力要出去。

43. A. up               B. backward          C. forward            D. down

【答案】D

【解析】但是它看不到出去的路不在上方，而在下方。

44. A. against         B. off                    C. along                D. into

【答案】A

【解析】bump its little head against the ceiling 小脑袋撞击天花板

45. A. free             B. small                 C. wide                 D. dark

【答案】B

【解析】门和天花板之间的空间很小。

46. A. in case         B. even if               C. as though          D. so that

【答案】D

【解析】so that 引导目的状语从句。

47. A. puzzle          B. confuse             C. frighten             D. disturb

【答案】C

【解析】但是这样似乎使它更害怕。Frighten sb使某人害怕， 吓唬某人

48. A. suggested     B. explained           C. insisted             D. demanded

【答案】A

【解析】why don’t sb do 是表示建议的用语。 所以选择A。

49. A. attempted     B. continued          C. refused             D. failed

【答案】B

【解析】continue to do sth继续干某事

50. A. fierce           B. empty               C. safe                  D. silent

【答案】D

【解析】根据下文our uninvited guest was gone， 所以没有声音了，很安静

51.A. looked after   B. worried about    C. thought about    D. brought up

【答案】C

【解析】Ａ．照看　Ｂ．担心 Ｃ．思考  Ｄ． 提出。下文题到“鸟和人没有什么不同”，所以作者是在思考。

52. A. forced         B. determined         C. born                 D. urged

【答案】C

【解析】be born to do 天生就是干某事的。 “我们认为我们天生就是往上飞的”

53. A. idea             B. possibility          C. challenge           D. problem

【答案】B

【解析】我们甚至没有考虑这种可能性，如果我们飞的低一些，好事也可能会发生。

54. A. progress      B. peace                C. decisions           D. efforts

【答案】A

【解析】make progress取得进步

55. A. panic           B. pressure            C. loss                  D. trouble

【答案】D

【解析】save some trouble 省去很多麻烦。

How far would you be willing to go to satisfy your need to know? Far enough to find out your possibility of dying from a terrible disease? These days that’s more than an academic question, as Tracy Smith reports in our Cover Story.

There are now more than a thousand genetic（基因的）tests, for everything from baldness to breast cancer, and the list is growing. Question is, do you really want to know what might eventually kill you? For instance, Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’（老年痴呆症）.

“If I tell you that you have an increased risk of getting a terrible disease, that could weigh on your mind and make you anxious, through which you see the rest of your life as you wait for that disease to hit you. It could really mess you up.” Said Dr. Robert Green, a Harvard geneticist.

“Every ache and pain,” Smith suggested, could be understood as “the beginning of the end.”“That ’s right. If you ever worried you were at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, then every time you can’t find your car in the parking lot, you think the disease has started.”

Dr. Green has been thinking about this issue for years. He led a study of people who wanted to know if they were at a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s. It was thought that people who got bad news would, for lack of a better medical term, freak out. But Green and his team found that there was“no significant difference”between how people handled good news and possibly the worst news of their lives. In fact, most people think they can handle it. People who ask for the information usually can handle the information, good or bad, said Green.

71.The first paragraph is meant to__________.

A. ask some questions                        B. introduce the topic

C. satisfy readers’ curiosity                 D. describe an academic fact

【答案】B

【解析】通过两个问题引出话题。

72.Which of the following is true of James Watson？

A. He is strongly in favor of the present genetic tests.

B. He is more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

C. He believes genetic mapping can help cure any disease.

D. He doesn’t want to know his chance of getting a disease.

【答案】D

【解析】根据第二段Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’。“James Watson要求如果他的基因表明他有很高的老年痴呆症的可能不要告诉他。”

73.According to Paragraphs 3 and 4, if a person is at a higher genetic risk, it is__________.

A. advisable not to let him know          B. impossible to hide his disease

C. better to inform him immediately      D. necessary to remove his anxiety

【答案】A

【解析】根据这两个自然段可知，如果你提前被告知你将来可能患某种可怕的疾病会mess you up。

74.The underlined part“freak out”in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to“_________”.

A. break down                     B. drop out            C. leave off            D. turn away

【答案】A

【解析】根据下文But的转折，以及no significant difference可知，freak out的意思是A（精神垮掉）。

75.The study led by Dr. Green indicates that people__________.

A. prefer to hear good news         B. tend to find out the truth

C. can accept some bad news              D. have the right to be informed

【答案】C

【解析】根据第五段内容 In fact, most people think they can handle it可知答案选C.

书面表达: （满分20分）

最近，你班就“考试”这一话题举行了一次讨论会。请根据以下信息，用英语写一篇短文，叙述大家对考试的看法。

    1. 短文必须包括所有要点。

2. 词数：120左右。

3. 参考词汇：改革reform  v. & n.  ； 课外活动 extra-curricular activities

4. 文章的开头已为你写好，不计入总词数：

Recently we had a discussion about examinations. Some students think that it is very important to have an exam._______________________________________________________

补写出下列名篇句句和文学常识中的空缺部分，任选一题。

（1）                    ，                    。茕茕孑立，形影相吊。

（李密《陈情表》）

渔舟唱晚，                    ；                    ，声断衡阳之浦。

（王勃《滕王阁序》）

（2）寄蜉蝣于天地，                    。                    ，羡长江之无穷。                    ，抱明月而长终。

（苏轼《赤壁赋》）

《闺塾》选自          ，作者是          。