If I were writing a history of my family, some of the darkest moments recorded would be those surrounding Christmas trees. One would certainly think otherwise; selecting and putting up our trees have always been filled with risk. For example, one afternoon dangerously close to Christmas Eve my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain, a glorious tree that was so full and tall that we could hardly get it into the house. Once we did, my father immediately realized that we would have to hire a carpenter to build a stand for it. Another December, perhaps the very next one, we bought a tree earlier than we ever had before. We were happy with its shape and delighted that its size was manageable. We easily placed it in a stand, decorated it from top to bottom, and then self-satisfiedly sat back by the fire in its soft light. Two or three days passed and the truth could not be hidden; we had bought a tree cut so long ago that its needles were coming off. There was nothing to do but undecorate it, take it down, and begin tree shopping again. Our most recent Christmas tree offered still another difficult task. When we brought it home, once again it seemed larger than it was in the great outdoors. To complicate matters, we had bought a new stand, one whose nuts （螺帽） and bolts （闩子） worked more mysteriously than those of our old stands. I persuaded two young neighbors to stop playing basketball and to help us get the tree into the house and set it correctly in the stand. Unfortunately, no one noticed the mud on our helpers' shoes, so only after removing several reddish brown spots from the carpet were we able to discuss the question of where the lights and ornaments （装饰）were stored. Perhaps those who cut their own trees have tales more painful than these. I don't care to hear them, as my family's experiences are enough to cause me to make the following suggestion:" Let's forget the tree next Christmas. Let's simply hang some flowers on the front door and over the mirror in the hall. "
【小题1】The darkest moments in the writer's family were with the fact that _____.

第二部分 阅读理解（共25小题。第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
If I were writing a history of my family, some of the darkest moments recorded would be those surrounding Christmas trees．One would certainly think otherwise; selecting and putting up our trees have always been filled with risk．For example, one afternoon dangerously close to Christmas Eve my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain, a glorious tree that was so full and tall that we could hardly get it onto the house．Once we did, my father immediately realized that we would have to hire a carpenter to build a stand for it．Another December, perhaps the very next one, we bought a tree earlier than we ever had before．We were happy with its shape and delighted that its size was manageable．We easily placed it in a stand, decorated（装饰）it from top to bottom, and then self-satisfiedly sat back by the fire in its soft light．Two or three days passed and the truth could not be hidden; we had bought a tree cut so long ago that its needles were coming off．There was nothing to do undecorated it, take it down, and begin treeshopping again．Our most recent Christmas tree offered still another difficult task．When we brought it home, once again it seemed larger than it had in the great outdoors．To complicate matters, we had bought a new stand, one whose nuts and bolts worked more mysteriously than those of our old stand．I persuaded two young neighbors to stop playing basketball and to help us get the tree into the house and set it correctly in the stand．Unfortunately, no one noticed the mud on our helpers’ shoes, so only after removing several reddish brown spots from the carpet were we able to discuss the question of where the lights and ornaments（装饰）were stored．Perhaps those who cut their own trees have tales more painful than these．I don’t care to hear them, as my family’s experiences are enough to cause me to make the following suggestion：“Let’s forget the tree next Christmas．Let’s simply hang some flowers on the front door and over the mirror in the hall．”
41．The darkest moments in the writer’s family were with the fact that________．
A．the family bought big Christmas trees
B．they had problems decorating their Christmas trees
C．they had problems picking suitable Christmas trees
D．they had problems finding carpenters for putting up Christmas trees．
42．We can learn from the passage that the writer would like to________．
A．forget about Christmas
B．get the neighbors to put up their trees
C．buy a better tree
D．make some other decorations to celebrate Christmas rather than the tree
43．When the writer said“mother bought what she thought to be a bargain”, he means________．
A．she bought the tree at a cheap price
B．she didn’t really want to buy it
C．she had to bargain hard with the salesman
D．she couldn’t afford a more expensive one
44．Which of the following can be the best for the passage?
A．How to Select a Christmas Tree     B．No More Christmas Tree for US
C．Dark Moments of Life            D．Christmas without Trees

I was in the queue for the supermarket checkout（付款台） earlier today．All of the checkouts were    46   , and the woman behind me was not happy! Every word that came from her mouth was a（n）    47   ! She wasn’t happy with the number of checkouts      48    ; she wasn’t happy with the amount of shopping some people had in their baskets; she wasn’t happy because this supermarket didn’t have a stand where she    49    scan her own shopping．

       I listened to her    50   looking around as I loaded（装） my stuff onto the conveyor belt （传送带）．I didn’t want    51    to do with that kind of attitude, and if ever I’d felt like letting someone go     52     of me, it wouldn’t be such a woman!

       But then I    53   back．Standing beside the woman was a five-year-old girl,    54    her granddaughter．The girl’s part of the shopping    55    some comic books．

       I couldn’t    56   it．I pushed my shopping back to the end of the conveyor belt,     57    a space．“After you,” I said to the woman and the girl, and    58    them to a big     59    ．The woman was delighted, and even   60    to complain ---- until she was walking away．

       So,   61   bother（麻烦，费事） having helped? It was because that little girl was probably taking in her granny’s complaint like a sponge（海绵）．She was learning how to    62    situations like that by listening to her granny．I’d seen that I could interrupt that complaining, and put a smile and some   63    into the middle of it．We can all complain; we can all react    64    , but it doesn’t have to be like that．And, even if only for a few     65     , I wanted to leave that little soul with just a glimpse of another way．

A．busy          B．big           C．free            D．empty

A．cry           B．argument        C．shout          D．complaint

A．opened        B．closed          C．left            D．done

A．would         B．need          C．could           D．must

A．beyond       B．without         C．with           D．by

A．something   B．nothing        C．everything           D．anything

A．ahead         B．behind       C．beside          D．back

A．went          B．looked         C．turned          D．jumped

A．only          B．surely           C．possibly        D．luckily

A．got       B．included        C．conclude       D．made

A．think        B．help          C．believe         D．forget

A．taking      B．leaving         C．bringing         D．keeping

A．returned     B．pleased         C．treated          D．served

A．smile       B．meal           C．joke            D．room

A．thanked     B．paid         C．checked        D．forgot

A．how         B．what          C．why            D．who

A．face          B．meet           C．handle          D．improve

A．truth        B．kindness       C．courage         D．money

A．actively    B．correctly       C．negatively    D．patiently

A．hours     B．chances         C．years           D．seconds

Outside the school _______ crowds of students, ______ to know the results of the exam.

 A. stand; too anxious   B. stand; too excited   C. stands; very worried  D. stands; eager enough

通读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后在各题所给的A，B，C，D四个选项中，选出一个最佳答案。
I was in the queue for the supermarket checkout(付款台) earlier today．All of the checkouts were    36  , and the woman behind me was not happy! Every word that came from her mouth was a(n)    37  ! She wasn’t happy with the number of checkouts      38   ; she wasn’t happy with the amount of shopping some people had in their baskets; she wasn’t happy because this supermarket didn’t have a stand where she    39   scan her own shopping.
I listened to her    40  looking around as I loaded my stuff onto the conveyor belt (传送带)．I didn’t want    41   to do with that kind of attitude, and if ever I’d felt like letting someone go     42    of me, it wouldn’t be such a woman!
But then I    43  back．Standing beside the woman was a five-year-old girl,    44   her granddaughter．The girl’s part of the shopping    45  of some comic books.
I couldn’t    46  it．I pushed my shopping back to the end of the conveyor belt,     47   a space．“After you,” I said to the woman and the girl, and    48   them to a big    49   ．The woman was delighted, and even    50   to complain ---- until she was walking away．
So,  51  bother having helped? It was because that little girl was probably taking in her granny’s complaint like a sponge(海绵)．She was learning how to    52   situations like that by listening to her granny．I’d seen that I could interrupt that complaining, and put a smile and some   53   into the middle of it．
We can all complain; we can all react    54   , but it doesn’t have to be like that．And, even if only for a few     55    , I wanted to leave that little soul with just a glimpse of another way．