The 1____ picked up the thermos and poured some hot water into the tea-cup and placed it on the small table in front of his 2____, who were a father and daughter, and put the lid on the cup with a clink. Obviously 3_____ of something, he hurried into the inner room, leaving the 4 _____ on the table. His two guests heard a box of drawers opening and a rustling(飒飒地响).

They 5 _____ sitting in the living-room, the 10-year-old daughter, looking at the flowers outside the window. The father was just about to take his cup when the 6 ____ came, right there in the living room. Something was hopelessly broken.

It was the thermos, which had fallen to the floor. The girl looked 7 ____ her shoulder at once, startled(吓一跳), 8_____. It was 9 _____.Neither of them had touched it, not even a little bit. The sound caused the host to rush back from the inner room. He looked at the 10_____ floor and blurted out（脱口而出）, “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter!”

The father started to say something. Then he muttered（嘀咕）, “ Sorry, I 11_____ it and it fell.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the host said.

Later, when they left the house the daughter said, “Daddy, I saw your 12 ____ in the windowpane(玻璃窗). You were sitting perfectly13____. Why did you say…?”

The father 14____, “What then would you 15____ as the cause of its fall?”

“It fell by itself. The floor is uneven(不平). It wasn’t steady when Mr Li put it there.”

“It won’t 16_____, girl. It sounds more 17_____ when I say I knocked it down. There are things people accept less the more you 18_____them. The truer your story is, the less true it sounds.”

The daughter was 19_____ in silence for a while. Then she said, “Can you 20____ it only this way?”

“Only this way,” the father said.

A.owner          B. host          C. guest         D. master

A.friends         B. neighbors     C. children       D. guests

A.knowing        B. remembering  C. hearing        D. thinking

A.thermos        B. cup          C. lid           D. tea

A.enjoyed         B. remained     C. imagined      D. hated

A.stranger        B. host          C. crash         D. noise

A.around         B. at           C. behind         D. over

A.staring          B. watching     C. shouting        D. crying

A.helpless         B. exciting      C. strange         D. terrible

A.broken         B. streaming    C. dirty           D. flooded

A.touched        B. used         C. hit            D. moved

A.faced          B. shadow       C. reflection      D. action

A.calm          B. still          C. silent          D. straight

A.shouted        B. murmured     C. laughed       D. repeated

A. tell           B. make         C. accept         D. give

A.do            B. help          C. go            D. fit

A.comfortable    B. friendly       C. acceptable      D. agreeable

A.defend        B. support        C. discuss         D. argue

A.kept          B. shut           C. worried         D. lost

A.do            B. explain        C. make           D. manage

“You know, these cups bring to mind a tea quote(说法) I heard.” Mary’s aunt said.

She poured tea. There were four of them and there were four totally different cups on the table.

They took their tea cups.

“What quote?” Mary asked.

“Well, maybe I should rather say it is a story,” aunt said, “I heard that there was a wise teacher who took all his students for tea. They were surprised that all the cups on the table were different. Each of them took a cup and started drinking their tea, each looking at the cups of others. The teacher let them do that for a while and then said,‘ Do you notice your behavior? You are all looking at each other’s tea cup and I can see some of you with the broken ones are even envious(羡慕的) of the finer cups of others. Is this not so?’ ”

The students agreed, amused by their own behavior.

“You may have wondered why you all had different cups, but I put them here on purpose. You see they represent (代表) life itself. Life is like that tea and the cups are like the physical circumstances(状况) of your life. You all got the same thing in your cups — tea. And yet you can not truly enjoy it in your envy of another’s cup. It’s just the same with life. You forget to enjoy your own life when you concentrate on envying the circumstances of someone else’s life.

So now, close your eyes, and taste your own tea. Really taste it. And tell me — did it matter from which cup it came from?”

Aunt finished telling her short tea story and they all sat in silence for a while, tasting their tea. A sleepy fly buzzed(嗡嗡作响) past, a bird sang in the tree. And it really did not matter one bit from which tea cup they drank.

When the students found they had different tea cups, they_____________.

A. were satisfied with their own cup

B. were angry about the broken cups they had been given

C. asked the teacher to get new cups for them

D. were curious about the difference between the cups

From the text, we know that _____________.

A. the teacher prepared different tea cups for each student

B. the teacher should have given the students the same cups

C. the teacher made the tea cups different by mistake.

D. each student took their time to choose a cup they liked

According to the passage, by comparing the cups to the physical circumstances of people’s life, the teacher meant that people_______.

A. should try different ways of life

B. shouldn’t focus on envy others’ physical circumstances

C. can never change their physical circumstances

D. should work hard for a better life

In the passage the teacher’s message to the students was that _______.

A. life is hard and boring for everyone

B. it is strange to be envious of the lives of others

C. everyone should learn to enjoy his own life

D. people act differently in different circumstances

What can be the best title for the passage?

     A. More than tea in a cup                           B. The value of tea

       C. Tea vs cup                                            D. Enjoying tea with a broken cup

　　In the northeast of the USA there are six small states. Together they are called New England. The most important state of New England is Massachusetts. Its capital city is Boston, with a population of just over half a million, which is the biggest city in New England. Greater Boston is make up of 78 cities and towns. It has a population of nearly 3 million, which is half the population of Massachusetts.

　　Boston was founded in 1630. The American Revolution began here when the people of Boston took up their arms to fight their English rulers.

　　The Boston tea is famous in America. Americans were very fond of tea, and much tea was brought to the port of Boston. The British government was looking for more ways to get money out of America. So it put a big tax on tea. They made the Bostonians angry. They rushed to the port and then onto a ship there. They threw all the tea into sea. This led to a war between the people of Boston and the British soldiers.

　　Thus the American Revolution began.

(1) What do you think Greater Boston is?

[　　]

A．Another name for Boston City.

B．Another city in Massachusetts.

C．An area in Massachusetts where Boston is.

D．A city that is greater than the city of Boston.

(2) The state of Massachusetts has a population of ________.

[　　]

(3) The British government put a big tax on tea because ________.

[　　]

A．it could greatly benefit from it

B．the American people liked tea very much

C．the people of Boston often drank tea

D．tea was too expensive at that time

(4) The American Revolution began when ________.

[　　]

A．Boston was founded in 1630

B．the Bostonians did not take their fate lying down

C．the people of Boston had no tea to drink

D．tea was first brought to the pert of Boston

完形填空 （共15小题；每小题1分，满分15分）

A young British woman had shortly arrived in Hong Kong and had not yet  36   anything about the Chinese   37  . One day she went to the home of a Chinese friend and was                                                                                                                                                       38   given a cup of Chinese tea. She was not   39   and she also found this type of tea rather   40  . However, since she had been given the tea , she felt she should drink it. Hoping to finish it   41   so that she would not feel about having to drink this tea which she did not   42   , she started to drink as much of it as she could. But as soon as her cup became half - full, the host   43   giving her more. Several times she told the host that she had had   44    , but it seemed to have no   45   . Her cup kept being   46  , and she kept on drinking. During the time of her   47  , she drank about twelve cups of tea. Later she found out that she should have just  48   the tea, and that this would have meant that she had had enough. Influenced by her  49   culture, she felt it too   50   to leave the tea and could not understand why the host took no notice of her protests(抗议) that she had had enough!

A. got   B. learned       C. taught D. remembered

A. culture   B. language    C. food   D. habit

A. hardly   B. certainly  C. carefully         D. immediately

A. tired      B. happy       C. thirsty         D. interested

A. bitter          B. sweet  C. nice  D. cold

A. in time  B. slowly C. gradually        D. quickly

A. take       B. have       C. like     D. buy

A. practised      B. insisted on  C. stopped      D. tried

A. some     B. enough       C. all      D. a little

A. value   B. end     C. effect       D. importance

A. filled   B. moved       C. changed     D. emptied

A. talk     B. visit    C. party   D. investigation

A. left      B. drunk  C. absorbed    D. filled

A. modern       B. ancient       C. Western      D. Eastern

A. impolite      B. polite  C. easy    D. uneasy

There was a teapot shaped like a duck, out of ______ mouth the tea was supposed to come.

A. whose         B. which         C. its        D. that