Africa is now facing many problems. People are suffering(遭受) from a shortage(短缺) of food. They do not have enough health care. Deserts (沙漠) are spreading (扩大) in many places.
In Africa millions of people starved (饿) to death, and two thirds of them were children. Harry Belafonte, a famous singer in America, felt sad when he saw a film about the starving people in Africa. He said to himself, "I should do something to help them. What can I do?" He thought of a plan to gather the stars from the music world and make a special record. The money from the record would help the starving people in Africa. Those famous singers and musicians were always very busy. "How can you gather them?" everyone said to Belafonte. But they were willing to come to the event(活动) from all over the country.
Then who wrote the words and music for the record?
During the Christmas holidays in 1984, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie were writing the words and music for the record at Jackson’ s home in Los Angeles. They often talked about the music far into the night. When they finished the music, they called it "We Are the World". On the evening of January 28th, 1985 ,forty -five superstars made a historical(历史性的) recording in a Hollywood studio(演播室)." Everyone should do something active like this, "said Cyndi Lauper. "We have to be the voice," Stevie Wonere said," to help those people that have lost their future. "A sign was put at the door of the studio: "Please cheek your ego (自我) at the door!"
At 10 P.M. they began their work. They finally finished recording at 8 A.M. that morning. Just at that moment Diana Ross sat down with tears in her eyes and said, "I just don’ t want this to end!"
On April 5, more than 800 radio stations all over the world played "We Are The World" at the same time.
53. What did Harry Belafonte think he should do?
A. He thought he should tell other people about it.
B. He thought he should send a lot of food to Africa.
C. He thought he should ask the government to help them.
D. He thought he should do something to help the starving people.
54. Who was he going to make a record with?
A. With Michael Jackson.           B. With the movie stars.
C. With the baseball stars.           D. With the stars from the music.
55. What would help the starving people in Africa?
A. The special record.              B. The money from record.
C. The money from the stars.        D. The money from the government.
56. What did Diana Ross want?
A. She didn’t want to continue such kindness.
B. She wanted to continue doing such kindness.
C. She didn’t want to stop recording.
D. She wanted to have a good rest.

阅读下面的征友信。假定你是潇湘中学的李华，愿意与写信人交朋友。请根据以下要求写一封回信，介绍个人的基本情况和学校生活。信的开头和结尾已给出。

要求：

1）介绍个人基本情况不少于3条信息，如年龄、性格、爱好等；学校生活也不少于3条信息，如作息时间、班级大小、学习课程等；

2）词数：100左右；

3）将回信写在答题卡上。

Dear friend,

Hi! My name is Jack. I am a high school student in the UK. I’m 17, an active and easy-going boy. I like ball games and surfing the Internet very much. School here starts at 9 a.m. and ends at about 3:30 p.m.. Our class is small, only 29 students or so. We have to move to different classrooms for different classes. Besides the main subjects, we can choose other subjects like Woodwork and German. Right now, I’m busy preparing myself for the A-level exam.

Please write and tell me about yourself and your school life if you are willing to be my pen friend.

Best wishes,

Jack

Dear Jack,

Hi, I am Li Hua from China. I am very glad to be your pen friend. I study in Xiaoxiang High School.

Best wishes,

Li Hua

Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.

Diet products weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie（卡）, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the counter instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food brands.

 On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

 The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients(营养成分). Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemical that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.

 Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us _____.

A. diet products can bring out people’s potential

B. people have difficulty in choosing diet products

C. diet products are misleading people

D. people are fed up with diet products

2.One psychological effect of diet products is that people tend to ____.

A. resist a variety of diet foods

B. hesitate before they enjoy diet foods

C. pay attention to their own eating habits

D. watch their weight rather than their diet

3.The purpose of writing this passage is _________.

A. to warn people of the side effect of diet products

B. to tell people how to lose weight

C. to advise people to eat diet products

D. to introduce some diet products

4. Which of the following shows the structure（结构） of the passage?

CP: Central Point      P: Point       Sp: Sub-point(次要点)   C: Conclusion

单词拼写:根据中文意思或首字母提示写出正确的单词。（共10小题；满分5分）

1. Please r________ me of the time when we have to hold the important meeting.

2.Without the teacher’s p_____, you cannot play with the computer in our class.

3.C_______(好奇心) is part of a child’s nature.

4.Knowledge can be of great b______ to everybody.

5.I am looking for a job in which I can c         my work with my interest.

6.He ______（发现） his old friend Jack in the crowd.

7.In many parts of China, there e______ the idea that boys are important than girls.

8.It is a t________ to play tricks on others on April 1.

9.Today’s festivals have many o_________ ,some religious , some seasonal , and some for

special people or events .

10.There was frost in the ground, c_______ that fall had arrived .

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

As we all know, Chinese handwriting has infinite power to express differences of character and cultivation. But we have to admit that traditional handwriting has become a __50__ art, now that kids start using keyboards as soon as they begin school. However, writing things out by hand may be a __51__ way we train our brains, several studies suggest. Many psychologists think that handwriting can make you __52__!

Writing by hand is different from __53__ because it requires using strokes to create a letter, __54__ just selecting the whole letter by touching a key, says Virginia Berninger, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington. These __55__ movements activate large regions of the brain __56__ in thinking, memory, and language. Handwriting helps children learn letters and shapes, improves their composition of ideas, and may also __57__ fine-motor skills development.

A study by Berninger found that in grades two, four, and six, children wrote more words, faster, and expressed more __58__ when writing essays by hand than when typing on a keyboard.

A separate study by researchers at Indiana University found that children who practiced printing by hand had more active__59__than kids who __60__ looked at letters.

It’s not just children who __61__ from writing things out by hand, says a study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Adults learning a new language remember its __62__ better if they write them out by hand than if they produce them with a keyboard.

As more people __63__ their days on the computer, says neuroscientist P. Murali Doraiswamy of Duke University, “__64__ people in handwriting skills could be a useful cognitive exercise.”

1.A. charming       B. dying            C. mixing       D. challenging

2.A. common         B. critical         C. classic      D. standard

3.A. smarter        B. calmer           C. deeper       D. quicker

4.A. clicking       B. talking      C. typing       D. moving

5.A. in addition to B. rather than      C. except for       D. other than

6.A. body          B. eye          C. letter          D. finger

7.A. ended      B. led          C. included         D. involved

8.A. boost          B. weaken       C. decline      D. prospect

9.A. meanings       B. ideas            C. information D. emotions

10.A. mood      B. behavior     C. fingers      D. brains

11.A. simply        B. rarely          C. hardly       D. specially

12.A. benefit           B. keep        C. result          D. learn

13.A. rules             B. sounds           C. characters       D. sentences

14.A. get          B. waste            C. spend            D. rely

15.A. retreating       B. returning        C. repeating        D. retraining