We spent a day in the country, picking wild flowers. With the car full of flowers we were going home. On our way back my wife noticed a cupboard (柜厨) outside a furniture shop. It was tall and narrow. “Buy it,” my wife said at once. “We’ll carry it home on the roof rack (车顶行李架). I’ve always wanted one like that.”

　 What could I do? Ten minutes later I was ￡20 poorer; and the cupboard was tied on the roof rack. It was six feet long and eighteen inches square, quite heavy too.

　 In the gathering darkness I drove slowly. Other drivers seemed unusually polite that evening. The police even stopped traffic to let us through. Carrying furniture was a good idea.

　 After a time my wife said, “There’s a long line of cars behind. Why don’t they overtake, I wonder?” In fact a police car did overtake. The two officers inside looked at us seriously as they passed. But then, with great kindness, they led us through the rush-hour traffic. The police car stopped at our village church. One of the officers came to me.

　“Right, sir,” he said.“Do you need any more help?”

　I was a bit puzzled. “Thanks, officer,” I said. “You have been very kind. I live just on the road.”

　 He was staring at our car, first at the flowers, then at the cupboard. “Well, well,” he said, laughing. “It’s a cupboard you’ve got there! We thought it was something else.”

　 My wife began to laugh. The truth hit me like a stone between the eyes. I smiled at the officer. “ Yes, it’s a cupboard, but thanks again.”I drove home as fast as I could.

1. In fact the husband _______ the cupboard.

A．would like very much to buy               B．badly wanted

C．would rather not buy                    D．was glad to have bought

2.Other drivers thought they were _______.

A．carrying a cupboard to the church

B．sending flowers to the church

C．carrying nothing but a piece of furniture

D．going to attend a funeral(葬礼) at the church

3.The police will be more polite to those who are _______.

A．in great sadness                        B．driving in gathering darkness

C．driving with wild flowers in the car          D．carrying furniture

4.What did the husband think of this matter?

A．It was very strange.                      B．He felt ashamed of it.

C．He took great pride in it.                  D．He was puzzled at it.

　　Lucky is the man who has no “skeleton in his closet”. When a man has done something in his life that he is ashamed of, that he wants to hide, he is said to have a “skeleton in his closet”. Some people may have more than one skeleton.

　　As we have noted many times, it is hard to find out how these expressions begin. Sometimes, we get some hard facts. But more often we have to depend on guesswork. And that is true of this phrase, which came from England.

　　Before 1932, English law did not permit a doctor to cut open a dead human body for scientific examination, unless it was the corpse(尸体) of an executed(处决) criminal.

　　But when it became legal, more and more doctors demanded skeletons for a more scientific study of medicine. It was helping in the advance of modern medicine. The demand had become so strong that men began to rob tombs and sell skeletons to doctors at high prices.

　　We are told that a doctor would usually buy just one skeleton for scientific study. It became very important in his work. But he had to keep it hidden because most people objected to keeping such a thing. As a rule, the doctor would keep his skeleton in some dark corner where it could not be seen, or hide it in a closet.

　　After a time, people began to suspect(怀疑) every doctor of hiding a skeleton in the closet. From this suspicion, the phrase “a skeleton in the closet” took on a broader, more general meaning to describe anything that a man wanted to keep others from discovering. It could be proof of a criminal act, or something much less serious. Well, that is one theory.

　　One writer, however, believes that the phrase might have come from something that really happened. It is his guess that a hidden closet in some old English country home may have turned up a real skeleton, clear proof of some old family shame or crime. Well, one man’s guess is as good as another. But this sounds like a story by the great French novelist, Balzac.

　　Baizac tells us of a man who suspected his wife of having a lover. The husband comes home by surprise. But she hears him and quickly hides her lover in the closet of her bedroom. He enters her room and asks her if she is hiding her lover. He says he will not open the door to the closet if she promises him there is no one there; He will believe her. She answers firmly that she is not hiding anyone in the closet.

　　The husband then begins to build a solid brick wall against the closet. His wife watches, knowing that her lover will never come out alive. But she will not change her story and admit her guilt.   

1. Which of the following situations is suitable for using the phrase “skeleton in the closet” ?

　　A. You have stolen something precious and don’t want it discovered.

　　B. You are a doctor and have to keep a skeleton for research.

　　C. If you have cut open a dead human body for scientific examination you should keep the skeleton secret.

　　D. You have done a crime or done something foolish, but you want to keep other from discovering it.

2. From the text we know that there are _______ theories about how the phrase “skeleton in the closet” came into being.

　　A. one 　　　　　      B. two 　　　　　      C. three 　　　　D. four

3. In Chinese the world “skeleton” means _______.

　　A. 尸体 　　　　　B. 标本 　　　　　C. 收藏 　　　　D. 骷髅

4. Which of the following is right according to the text?

　    A. In the 20th century, doctors realized the importance of anatomy(解剖) in the development of medicine.

　　B. The doctors of the ancient times liked to collect as many skeleton as possible.

　　C. The thieves stole skeletons from tombs in order to help the doctors.

　　D. It was legal that corpses of anybody were cut open for scientific examination in history.

5. From the story Balzac told we know that the wife’s lover must have become _______.

A. a corpse 　　　　B. a phrase 　　　　C. a skeleton 　　　D. a secret

One day in l965, when I worked at View Ridge School in Seattle, a fourth-grade teacher approached me. She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge. "Could he help in the library?" She asked. I said, "Send him along."

　　Soon a slight, sandy-haired boy in jeans and a T-shift appeared. "Do you have a job for me?" he asked.

　　I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving books. He picked up the idea immediately. Then I showed him a stack of cards for long-overdue books that I was beginning to think had actually been returned but were misshelved with the wrong cards in them. He said, "Is it kind of a detective job?" I answered yes, and he became working.

　　He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and announced, "Time for break!" He argued for finishing the finding job; She made the case for fresh air. She won.

　　The next morning, he arrived early. "I want to finish these books," he said. At the end of the day, when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis, it was easy to say yes. He worked untiringly.

　　After a few weeks I found a note on my desk, inviting me to dinner at the boy's home. At the end of a pleasant evening, his mother announced that the family would be moving to neighbouring school district. Her son's first concern, she said, was leaving the View Ridge library. "Who will find the lost books?" he asked.

　　When the time came, I said a reluctant good-bye. I missed him, but not for long. A few days later he came back and joyfully announced: "The librarian over there doesn't let boys work in the library. My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge. My dad will drop me off on his way to work. And if he can’t, I'll walk!"

I should have had an inkling(感觉) such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go. What I could not have guessed, however, was that he would become a wizard of the Information Age: Bill Gates, tycoon of Microsoft and America's richest man.

What was the author when the story happened?

       A. A teacher.                 B. A librarian.               C. A detective.              D. A professor.

What was the boy told to do on his first day in the library?

A. To rearrange the books according to the new system.

B. To put those overdue books back to the shelves.

C. To find out the books with wrong cards in them.

D. To put the cards back in the long-overdue books.

The boy got transferred back to View Ridge because _______.

A. he did not like his life in the new school                            

B. the transportation there was not convenient

C. he missed his old schoolmates and teachers

D. he was not allowed to work in the school library

What impressed the author most was that the boy _______.

A. had a thirst for learning                               B. had a strong will

C. was extremely quick at learning                            D. had a kind heart

The 2012 London Olympics had enough problems to worry about. But one more has just been added -- a communications blackout caused by solar storms.
　　After a period of calm within the Sun, scientists have detected the signs of a flesh cycle of sunspots that could peak in 2012, just in time for the arrival of the Olympic torch in London.
　　Now scientists believe that this peak could result in vast solar explosions that could throw billions of tons of charged matter towards the Earth, causing strong solar storms that could jam the telecommunications satellites and interact links sending five Olympic broadcast from London.
　　"The Sun's activity has a strong influence on the Earth. The Olympics could be in the middle of the next solar maximum which could affect the functions of communications satellites," said Professor Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
　　At the peak of the cycle, violent outbursts called coronal mass ejections (日冕物质抛射) occur in the Sun's atmosphere, throwing out great quantities of electrically-charged matter. "A coronal mass ejection can carry a billion tons of solar material into space at over a million kilometres per hour. Such events can expose astronauts to a deadly amount, can disable satellites, cause power failures on Earth and disturb communications," Professor Harrison added. The risk is the greatest during a solar maximum when there is the greatest number of sunspots.
　　Next week in America, NASA is scheduled to launch a satellite for monitoring solar activity called the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which will take images of the Sun that are 10 times clearer than the most advanced televisions available.
　　The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory helped to make the high-tech cameras that will capture images of the solar flares (太阳耀斑) and explosions as they occur.
　　Professor Richard Harrison, the lab's director, said that the SDO should be able to provide early warning of a solar flare or explosion big enough to affect satellite communications on Earth "If we have advanced warning, we'll be able to reduce the damage. What you don't want is things switching off for a week with no idea of what's caused the problem," he said.
【小题1】The phrase "communications blackout" in paragraph 1 most probably refers to____________ during the 2012 Olympics.

.

第二节：完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，共30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题的A、B、C、D四个选项中，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。

I stopped to let the car cool 　36　and to study the map. I had expected to be near my destination（目的地） by now, but everything still seemed 　37　to me. I was only five when my father had 　38　me abroad, and that was eighteen years 　39　. When my mother had 　40　after a car accident, he didn’t quickly 　41　from the shock and loneliness. Everything around him was full of her 　42　, continually reopening the wound. 　43　he decided to go abroad. In the new country he paid much attention to 　44　a new life for the two of us, 　45　he gradually forgot the past. He did not marry again, and I was 　46　without a woman’s care, but I lacked 　47　, for he was both father and mother to me. He always 　48　to go back one day and see old friends again and to visit my mother’s 　49　. He became ill for a few months 　50　we planned to go and, when he knew he was 　51　, he made me promise to go on my own.

　　I 　52　a car the day before landing and bought a map, 　53　I found most helpful on the last stage. My father had described over and over again what we could see on the way there, so I was pretty 　54　that I could find it. Well, I had been wrong, for I was now 　55　.

　　36. A. up　　　　　　　B. off　　　　　 C. of　　　　　　　　D. to

　　37. A. unfamiliar　　　 B. similar　　　　C. unusual　　　　　 D. familiar

　　38. A. brought　　　　　B. carried　　　　C. taken　　　　　　D. fetched

　　39. A. later　　　　　　 B. since　　　　 C. then　　　　　   D. ago

　　40. A. been disabled　　B. died　　　　  C. gone up　　　　　D. passed by

　　41. A. return　　　　　 B. make　　　　 C. go back　　　　  D. recover

　　42. A. presence　　　　 B. absence　　　 C. arrival　　　　　 D. show

　　43. A. Since　　　　　 B. For　　　　　 C. So　　　　　　　D. Before

　　44. A. earning　　　　　B. starting　　　 C having　　　　　　D. opening

　　45. A. in case　　　　　B. so that　　　　 C. so long　　　　 D. so much

　　46. A. brought up 　　　B. taken up 　　　C. brought out 　　  D. taken off

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

　　48. A. imagined 　　　 B. supposed　　　 C. meant 　　　　　D. asked

　　49. A. house　　　　　 B. room　　　　　C. church　　　　　 D. grave

　　50. A. before　　　　　 B. after　　　　　C. until　　　　　　 D. as

　　51. A. lying　　　　　  B. dying　　　　 C. helping 　　　　 D. living

　　52. A. bought　　　　　 B. lent　　　　　 C. borrowed　　　　D. hired

　　53. A. what　　　　　　B. that 　　　　　C. how 　　　　　　D. which

　　54. A. sad　　　　　 B. happy　　　　  C. sure　　　　　　 D. interested

　　55. A. away　　　　　　B. out　　　　　 C. gone　　　　　　D. lost