阅读下面短文，在文中空白处填入最适当的词语，使文章完整。（每空限填一词。）
Dear Toby,
Your trip sounds exciting! I can’t wait to hear ___【小题1】___ Africa is like.
Since my last letter to you, I have had a little adventure of my own. Early this morning, my mother and I took ____【小题2】___ flight to Dunhuang, in the north-west of China. The desert out there was really quite amazing—I had never seen ___【小题3】____ much sand in my life! While we were there, we arranged with a tour company to ride camels. I was really excited because this was the first time I had seen____【小题4】___ up close. We had hoped that we could see some other wildlife on our trip, ___【小题5】____ sadly we didn’t.
Since you are going to the Sahara, I have some advice—be sure to bring a large hat and a shirt with long sleeves—you’ll need these ____【小题6】___ protection. The sun can be so brilliant that you’ll need to keep covered, ___【小题7】____ you’ll get burnt—my cheek were red for days after my trip. And another thing, you’ll need to keep a good supply of water with you, since it is so dry and hot.
Looking forward ___【小题8】____ receiving your postcards!
Best wishes
Aihua

My friend Michelle is blind, but you’d never know it. She makes such good use of her other    , including her “sixth sense”,   she rarely gives the impression she’s missed anything.

  Michelle looks after her children pretty much like the rest of us, except that she doesn’t push too hard on them, who really benefit a lot from her relaxed attitude. She knows when to clean the house, she moves around so fast that often the    don't realize she's blind.

  I realize this the first time after my six-year-old daughter, Kayla, went to play there. When Kayla came home, she was very   about her day. She told me they had baked cookies, played games and done art projects. But she was   excited about her finger-painting project.

  “Mom, guess what?”said Kayla, all smiles. “I learned how to      colors today! Blue and red make purple, and yellow and blue make green! And Michelle      with us.”

  To my great      my child had learnt about color from a blind friend!

  Then Kayla continued, “Michelle told me my       showed joy, pride and a sense of accomplishment. She really      what I was doing!’’ Kayla said she had never felt how good finger paints felt      Michelle showed her how to paint without looking at her paper.

  I realized Kayla didn’t know that Michelle was blind. It had just never come up in conversation.

  When I told her, she was      for a moment. At first, she didn’t believe me. “But Mommy, Michelle knew exactly what was in my picture!” Kayla     . And I knew my child was      because Michelle had listened to Kayla describe her artwork. Michelle had also heard Kayla's pride in her work.

  We were silent for a minute.Then Kayla said slowly, “You know, Mommy, Michelle really did ‘see’ my picture. She just used my      .’’ Indeed, she uses a special type of “vision” that all mothers have.

1.A.ways      B.means         C.methods      D.senses  

2.A.which     B.when          C.that          D.as

3.A.guests     B.family         C.children      D.friends

4.A.excited    B.sad            C.satisfied      D.enjoyed

5.A.especially  B.not so          C.a little       D.not at all

6.A.paint      B.draw           C.mix         D.create

7.A.stayed     B.painted         C.talked       D.played

8.A.excitement  B.encouragement  C.delight       D.surprise

9.A.attitude     B.color           C.picture      D.paper

10.A.touched    B.distinguished    C.saw         D.understood

11.A.after      B.before          C.until         D.when

12.A.curious    B.quiet           C.puzzled      D.worried

13.A.cried      B.insisted         C.complained   D.informed

14.A.right      B.wrong          C.worried       D.uncertain

15.A.paper     B.pens            C.hands        D.eyes

After my dad died on Aug.30, 2001, my mother made sure we marked each anniversary. At first, my brothers and sister and I would travel hours to get home, but eventually we got to the point where just one or two of us would make it back to go to Mass with her and spend the day together.
The great love of her life, the man who broke up with her right before her college graduation, only to return two years later claiming he’d traveled the world and hadn’t found anyone to compare with her, remained a daily presence in her life. She spoke about him so often and kept his memory so alive that people were sometimes surprised to learn that he was gone. She took over the garden where he’d planted and made it her own.
When the 10th anniversary of his death approached, my mom began talking about it and planning for it weeks in advance. The date on her kitchen calendar was circled and marked R.I.P. (Rest in Peace). Of course she wanted all of us there and settled the dates for our coming back.
On Monday — the day before the anniversary — she went to morning Mass and walked downtown for lunch with friends, and later told my sister on the phone that she felt Dad still so close that as she was walking back home, she heard someone yell and thought, “Oh, there’s Dick.”
That evening she went out to water flowers, just as my father, 10 years before, had gone out to the garden to pick vegetables before he died. A neighbor heard the tin watering can strike the ground as she fell and hit her head. My mother died within hours, on Aug.30, 2011, the 10thanniversary. She needed to mark that anniversary, she wanted us all home and my dad had waited long enough.
【小题1】From the second paragraph we know that the author’s father______.

单词拼写（共10小题；每小题1分，共10分）
【小题1】 In the old times, many political leaders were not thought ________（高度评价） of.
【小题2】Father _______ (承诺，许诺)to buy me a computer if I do well in the final examination.
【小题3】 He is _______（诚实的） and he never tells lies.
【小题4】Once he was the _______ （教练）of our football team
【小题5】Many rare animals are in ________（危险）because they are being hunted for.
【小题6】While reading, please pay much __________ （注意）to your pronunciation.
【小题7】Our school was _________ （设计）by a famous professor from Tongji University.
【小题8】People say that barking dogs don’t ________ .(咬)
【小题9】Dave didn't __________ （回复）to any of her emails, which made her angry.
【小题10】I am busy, so I have to e_________ （雇佣）a housekeeper to look after my children.

The Great Barn Adventure

One morning when I was 11, I explored the town’s abandoned round grain barn（谷仓）. I found a chained sliding door that was wide enough for me to pass through.

Inside, there was a heavy smell of dead mice in the dark. After my eyes adjusted, I noticed a shaft (升降机井) that rose all the way to the top of the barn. On one side was a one-man elevator with a long rope and roller.

I stepped onto the platform and gave the rope a drag and the elevator began sliding up the shaft, but stopped halfway. After a brief panic attack, I noticed holes in the wall at regular intervals, forming a ladder. For reasons known only to an 11-year-old, I decided it would be better to go up than down. So, with shaking hands, I began climbing the wall.

After what seemed like forever, I reached the top of the shaft. I stood up, dusted myself off and found absolutely nothing of interest. It was just an empty room with a ladder leading up to the roof. I climbed all the way up here for this? Then I noticed a fire extinguisher（灭火器）,which I’d always wanted to shoot off. So this was the chance of a lifetime. I tried it, and, much to my surprise, the thing worked! It shot out a thick cloud of powder that instantly filled the room. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to choke to death, and they’d probably never even find my body.

Luckily, I remembered the ladder to the roof. I climbed up, popped the straw roof and saw a bright blue sky.

I suddenly realized the dust and powder pouring out of the top could draw attention. So when the dust had settled, I climbed down and slipped out of the chained door. I’m not sure if I was more excited about being alive or about not being caught, but I ran all the way back home.

1.When the author got inside the barn, he _______.

A. noticed a man on the elevator

B. opened the chained sliding door

C. saw many dead mice in the dark

D. found a shaft leading to the top

2.Which of the following is the right order of the author’s adventure?

a. The elevator stopped halfway.

b. He entered the round grain barn.

c. He climbed to the top of the shaft.

d. He found a fire extinguisher and shot it off.

A. b-a-c-d???????? B. a-c-b-d???????? C. c-a-d-b????? ????????????? ????????????? D. b-c-a-d

3.After getting out of the chained door, the author might feel _______.

A. inspired???????? B. relieved??????? C. surprised??????? ????????????? D. disappointed

4.From the passage, we can learn that the author was probably a boy full of _______.

A. passions????????????? ????????????? ? B. dreams????????????? ?????? C. curiosity????????????? ????????????? ????????????? D. imagination