Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer（扫盲志愿者）. The training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student, however. When I began to discover what other people’s lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.

My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn’t know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule. She told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket, because she couldn’t always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label, she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.

As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie’s self-confidence, which encouraged her to continue in her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. She sat with him before he went to sleep and together they would read bedtime stories. When his eyes became wide with excitement as she read, pride was written all over her face, and she began to see how her own hard work in learning to read paid off. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.

As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.

What did the author do last summer?

A. She worked in the supermarket.

B. She helped someone to learn to read.

C. She gave single mothers the help they needed.

D .She went to a training program to help a literacy volunteer.

Why didn’t Marie go to the supermarket by bus at first?

A. Because she liked to walk to the supermarket.    B. Because she lived far away from the bus stop.

C. Because she couldn’t afford the bus ticket.       D. Because she couldn’t find the right bus.

How did Marie use to find the goods she wanted in the supermarket?

A. She knew where the goods were in the supermarket.  B. She asked others to take her to the right place.

C. She managed to find the goods by their looks.       D. She remembered the names of the goods.

Which of the following statements is true about Marie?

A. Marie could do things she had not been able to do before.

B. Marie was able to read stories with the help of her son.

C. Marie decided to continue her studies in school

D. Marie paid for her own lessons.

All sorts of items become litter(垃圾) but two of the most common and most dangerous are cigarette butts（烟头) and plastic bags. Litter is a big problem for our environment but it is a problem that individuals can easily do something about. Not littering at all or cleaning up litter, such as  cigarette butts and plastic bags, greatly improves the quality of our environment.
Although cigarette butts, are small, they are bad for the environment. Over 1,600 billion cigarette are smoked each year in China and large quantities of the butts are thrown away. Worldwide, about 4. 5 trillion butts are littered every year. Apart from the fact that butts spoil the beauty of the environment, they contain some very toxic chemicals. These find their way into the water supply where they decrease the quality of the water and endanger plants and animals that live there. So, if people have to smoke, they shouldn't throw away the butts but put them in the rubbish bin instead.
Plastic bags are another common form of litter that is a danger to the environment. There areseveral reasons for this. They are made from oil and gas, which are non—renewable resources. If they are not recycled, these resources are lost to us. In China, 2 billion plastic bags are used every day. An enormous number of these become litter. This is a huge problem because they last from 20 to 1,000 years in the environment. They float easily in the air and water and travel long distances. They find their way to rivers, parks, beaches and oceans. Plastic bags kill up to one million seabirds, 100, 000 sea mammals and countless fish each year worldwide. It is up to people not to let plastic bags become litter. It would be better if they used fewer and recycled them.
Cleaning up your cigarette butts and plastic bags would improve the environment. And we would know that we were doing something to look after our planet. However, I believe the best solution would be not to smoke or use plastic bags at all.
【小题1】 Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
A           B.         C.          D.
( ①=" paragraph" 1; ②=" paragraph" 2; ③=" paragraph" 3; ④a paragraph 4 )
【小题2】The word “toxic” in the paragraph 2 most probably mean “________”

A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet website called a “blog”. The word “blog” is a short way of saying “web log”, or “personal website”. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like．
There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas to the people who read them．They contain links to other websites．And they provide a place for people to write their ideas and react to the ideas of others．
A research company called Perseus has studied more than 3,000 web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year．
However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products．
At thesame time, some long-standing blogs have ended. Last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service “weblogs.com”． He said the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago, and thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closed．
One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket．Rebecca Blood created the website in 1999. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site．That article led to a book called The Weblog Handbook．It has been translated into four languages so far．
Miss Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket gets about thirty thousand visitors a month．She writes about anything and everything —— politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice． And she wrote about how to prevent people from being stolen from online bank accounts．
【小题1】The text is mainly written to _______．

D
At the railway stations all across Britain next week, groups of students will gather with their backpacks to wait for the trains that will carry them home for Christmas. This is a large movement of human beings as before, but with more contradictory traffic flows, so that trains filled with the young pass each other travelling in every direction.
At first, I went home every weekend with my washing, but then those visits became less regular. How did I let my parents know I was coming? They had no phone. Perhaps I wrote to them (“Expect me with dirty shirts this Friday afternoon”), but more likely I didn’t let them know, and just turned up or didn’t turn up, not understanding that my parents’ hopes of seeing me were a greater disappointment of my carelessness than a spoiled tea.
And in all this I suspect I was typical (有代表性的), at least of young men. As for our fathers and mothers, none of them talked of “empty-nest syndrome (综合症)”, even though its possible effect that the main human duty is to protect and feed the young would have suited their generation better than ours. Then, the feeling of loss went without a name. Today, it’s a condition with remedies, which will make parents feel more enjoyable in their life, The Mayo Clinic, for example, suggests you try to maintain regular contact with your children through “visits, phone calls, emails, texts or video chats”. If you feel unhappy, lean on (depend on … for support) loved ones or your mental health providers. Above all, stay positive: “Thinking about the extra time and energy that you might have to devote to your marriage or personal interests after your last child leaves home, it might help you adapt to this major life change.”
What can’t be denied, however, is that children often leave home. In modern societies, this is what they do. Christmas is the very time they can be depended on to return. For the non-religious, that may be this season’s true comfort and significance.
【小题1】The main reason for the busy traffic across Britain next week is that _______.

C
Hank Viscardi was born without legs. He had no legs but stumps(残肢) that could be fitted with a kind of special boots. People stared at him with cruel interest. Children laughed at him and called him ‘Ape Man’ because his arms practically dragged on the ground.
Hank went to school like other boys. His grades were good and he needed only eight years to finish his schooling instead of the usual twelve. After graduating from school, he worked his way through college. He swept floors, waited on table, or worked in one of the college offices. During all this busy life, he had been moving around on his stumps. But one day the doctor told him even the stumps were not going to last much longer. He would soon have to use a wheel chair.
Hank felt himself got cold all over. However, the doctor said there was a chance that he could be fitted with artificial legs(假腿). Finally a leg maker was found and the day came when Hank stood up before the mirror. For the first time he saw himself as he has always wanted to be--- a full five feet eight inches tall. By this time he was already 26 years old.
Hank had to learn to use his new legs. Again and again he marched the length of the room, and marched back again. There were times when he fell down on the floor, but he pulled himself up and went back to the endless marching. He went out on the street. He climbed stairs and learned to dance. He built a boat and learned to sail it.
When World War II came, he talked the Red Cross into giving him a job. He took the regular training. He marched and drilled along with the other soldiers. Few knew that he was legless. This was the true story of Hank Viscardi, a man without legs.
44. It can be inferred from the story that five feet eight inches tall is _______.
A. an average height for a fully grown person
B.too tall for an average person
C. too short for an average person               
D. none of the above
45. The sentence “he talked the Red Cross into giving him a job” implies that the Red Cross _______.
A. was only glad to give him a job
B. gave him a job because he was a good soldier
C.gave him a job after he talked to someone whom he knew in the organization  
D. was not willing to give him a job at first
46. When Hank marched and drilled along with the other soldiers, he _______.
A. did everything the other soldiers did
B. did most of the things the other soldiers did
C. did some of the things the other soldiers did  
D. took some special training
47. The writer suggests that Hank Viscardi _______.
A. had no friends           B. never saw himself as different from others
C. was very shy            D. was too proud to accept help from others