When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.
When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.
The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them so that each successive tree generation would grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured.
So he never watered his trees. He planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.
Dr. Gibbs passed away a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big and robust since they have deep roots now. However, the trees in my garden trembled in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.
It seems that adversity(逆境) and suffering benefit these trees in ways comfort and ease never could. I stood there deep in thought.
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think that it’s time to change my prayer(祷词) because now I know my children are going to encounter hardship.
【小题1】According to Dr. Gibbs’ theories, trees will become weaker if they _________.

第二卷（45分）

第一节：阅读表达（每小题３分，共１５分。）

阅读下面的短文，并根据要求回答问题。

         Confidence: you’ve either got it or you haven’t, right? Wrong. Most people learn confidence

as they go through life.

         Even if you are shaking like a leaf on the inside, you’ll make a lasting impression if you can come across as confident. Here are some confidence-building tips.

         Fake(假装) it! If you can pretend that you feel confident when you don’t and keep on doing so, your fake confidence will soon turn into real confidence. It only takes a few repetitions of an activity for it to become a habit—so get in the habit of         .

         Think it. For an instant encouragement to yourself-esteem (自尊心), recall three things that give you positive emotions. It could be a great compliment somebody paid you, a special time when you felt happy and popular, or when you really excelled (胜过别人) at something. Bringing them to mind will help you to feel good instantly—and when you feel good, you have greater confidence.

         Focus it. Difficult situations, such as interviews or new jobs, can make you feel shy. If you’re feeling anxious about yourself, stop thinking about yourself and focus on something else. It could be that you focus on something normal, like the view out of the window, or that you pay more attention to the task at hand—getting the job! Either way, you'll feel less awkward.

         Talk it. If you keep telling yourself that you're not good at something, you’ll start to believe it. Next time you blame yourself, ask yourself whether you'd talk to your friends like that. So quit being negative and start recognizing and appreciating the things you are good at.

         Walk it. Great posture can signal great confidence. Walk with a purposeful stride, walk with your back straight and with your head held up high!

1．What is the best title of the passage?  （within 8 words）

2．Please fill in the blank in the 3rd paragraph with proper words to complete the sentence. 

    （within 6 words.）

3．Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?

         Stop finding fault with yourself and try to think more about your advantages.

4．Which of the tips given in the passage will work best with you? Why? （within 30 words.）

5．Please translate the underlined sentence in the third paragraph into Chinese.

The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”

“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”

I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all your people do?”

“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”

“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”

“That’s good, sir.”

“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.

“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”

After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re still flying, aren’t they?”

“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”

“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”

“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

“I wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’ can’t tell me.”

By this time there were quite a few people standing in line. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

1.The best title for the article is _______.

A. When the Computer Is Down       B. The Most Frightening Words

C. The Computer of the Airport     D. Asking the Computer

2. What does the underlined words“ backup computer” probably mean?

A. A computer that will be brought back soon.  

B.A second-hand computer that is still in use.

C. An advanced computer that never breaks down..   

D. A computer ready for use when the main one does not work.

3. The last paragraph implies that _______.

A. a modern computer won’t be down.　　　　

B. computers can take the place of humans

C. sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people

D. there will be great changes in computers

阅读下面的短文，然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。

A Little Hero

A group of Italian soldiers led by a captain were advancing slowly toward the position of the enemy. They arrived at a farmhouse, in front of which sat a small boy, cutting a branch of a tree with his knife.

"What are you doing here?" asked the captain. "Why didn't you leave with your family?"

　　"I don't have any family," said the boy. "I'm an orphan. I used to work for the family that lived here. They've gone, but I stayed in order to see the fighting."

　　"Have you seen any Austrians pass by here?"

　　"Not within the last three days."

　　"Do you think you could climb that tree and tell me whether you see anything of the Austrians in the distance?"

　　"Sure!"

　　In a few minutes the boy was at the top of the tree.

　　"Look straight ahead," cried the captain, "and tell me what you see."

　　"Two men on horseback - nothing else."

　　"How far away?"

　　"About a mile and a half. They're standing still." ….

　　"They're shooting at me," said the boy. "but don't worry. Let me tell you what's to the left. Well, there's a church and I think I see..."

　　 A third bullet passed, and the boy was seen to fall suddenly from the tree, dead.

　　"Poor boy!" said the captain, covering the boy's body with a national flag and saying, "He died like a soldier and we must bury him like a soldier."

Soon it was covered with flowers. He gave his life to his country.

【写作内容】

学校最近组织了一次中美学生交流活动，你参加其中的“童年生活”讨论。听完Joe讲的故事“A Little Hero” 之后，你准备写一份发言稿，题目是“After Listening to ‘A Little Hero’ ”，内容要点包括：

1. 以约30个词概括你听完A Little Hero的故事；

2. 然后以约120个词谈谈你的童年生活，内容包括：

(1) 对自己童年生活的感受；

(2) 你的童年以及现在的生活和故事中那位小英雄的童年生活有什么不同？

(3) 作为一位高中学生，你未来的理想是什么？

【写作要求】

1. 在作文中可以使用自己亲身的经历或虚构的故事，也可以参照阅读材料的内容但不得直接引用原文中的句子；

2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。

【评分标准】

概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，篇章连贯。