My daddy doesn’t know how to express love. It is my mum that makes everyone happy and calm in

our family; while Daddy only works day and night, never looking us in the face. But Mum makes a

wrongdoing list of us for Daddy scolding us. She was a spy!

  Once, I stole a candy. Daddy asked me to put it back and told the shopkeeper I would like to carry

loads for her. Well, Mum told him I was jut a child.

  I broke my leg on the playground. It’s still Mum that held me tightly in her warm arms. Daddy

drove us right to emergency room. He was asked to move the car away for that space was for

ambulance. Daddy got angry, “What do you think of it? A touring car?”

  On my birthday party, it was, again, my mum that took over the cake for me. And my dad was busy

with blowing balloons and setting the table and doing the housework.

  While looking over our album, my friends always ask, “What does your father look like?” God

knows. He photos others all the time. So there are many photos of my mum and me, pretty and lovely

photos.

  And I still remembered the day when dad taught me riding. I asked him not to let his hands away,

but he did the opposite. And I certainly fell onto the ground. I got angry and decided to get on the bike

and rode. But he smiled again.

  Mum wrote every letter to me while I was in college. He, except checks, did write a letter, but

extremely short, just a few words, saying, “Without your playing on the lawn, my son, my lawn grows

prettier than before.”

  Every time I phoned, it seemed that he wanted to talk, but he would say, “I will get your mum.”

  On the day of my wedding, Mum cried as if we would never meet again, while dad went out with a

nasal sound.

  From very young, I heard him saying, “Where have you been?” “When do you go home?” “Did you

get oil for your car?” “…” Dad really knows nothing about showing love. Unless…

  Maybe he showed while I didn’t notice.

1. From the first and second paragraphs, we can infer that ______.

  A. it was the daddy that was in charge of his children’s education

  B. the writer’s parents loved their children, at the same time, they were strict with them

  C. the children were all afraid of their father so they had to be cute

  D. the writer’s mom was like a spy who reported what the children did to the father

2. Why did the father get angry when he sent the writer to the hospital?

  A. Because he parked his car at a wrong place.

  B. Because the parking space of the ambulance was very crowded.

  C. Because the writer’s injury made the father quite upset.

  D. Because the person paid little attention to his son’s serious injury.

3. According to Paragraph Six, we know the father______.

  A. was not patient when he taught the writer riding

  B. might want to see his child fall off the bike

  C. used a wrong way of teaching his child riding

  D. might want his son to learn riding through independent practice

4. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

  A. The dad posted checks to the writer while he was in college.

  B. The dad had no single photo of his own in the album.

  C. The dad scolded the writer for having damaged the lawn.

  D. The dad got excited when participating in the writer’s wedding.

 This is the new plan all the scientists want to see ________.

   A. carried out        C. carrying out        C. to carry out        D. carry out

Minimalism (简约主义) is a term that describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is reduced to its most basic features.

As for me, minimalism functions well not in art or design, but in my daily life.

When I was packing for university, I found it extremely difficult to let go of some of the things I owned. I knew I couldn’t take everything with me, but I kept asking myself “how could I possibly throw this away?”, “what if I need it one day?”, and “what about all of the memories?” Now that I’ve moved, and left that stuff behind, I don’t even miss it. Whether or not I got rid of it, it barely makes a bit of difference to me now.

I’ve learned that over time people forget, or their need for a particular object eventually disappears. Either they store it away or they get rid of it.

You might think nostalgically（怀旧的） about the toys you cared about when you were a child, but what is making you smile now is not the thing itself but the memory of it. 1’ve heard it a hundred times, “you don’t need things to make you happy.” It takes something life-changing like moving across the country to realize how true this is.

Speaking of which, for a lot of people, minimalism is about able to move. It’s about being able to go almost anywhere at any time because you don’t have many possessions to carry. When you keep things you don’t need they become a burden that ties you to a place. Moving to university was a good time to let go of a lot of stuff. And when I visit for the holidays, I’ll probably get rid of even more, to lighten the burden.

Of course there are exceptions. There are some things that are irreplaceable, very rare or expensive or we simply love and cherish for some reason or another, since we are humans. But after we keep those, how much is left that we don’t really need?

Hence, minimalism. And why does minimalism bring happiness? That was a bit of a roundabout way of saying that, it’s because what really makes me happy is freedom. And the key to freedom is minimalism because minimalism reduces our attachment to things.

Attachment to too many objects creates a great mess and can severely hold back our freedom to do whatever we want, while minimalism helps us start new projects, move, travel, learn new things, work, expand, be debt-free, be healthy – really living life to our full potential.

I left the nest to fly onwards and upwards, I can’t do it with old things weighing me down. And that is why I have adopted minimalism with open arms.

1.In paragraph l, the writer gives the definition of minimalism to      .

A．introduce a topic                       B．present his own idea

C．describe a scene                        D．offer an argument

2.Many people don’t want to let go of some of their belongings because       .

A．they haven’t had any life-changing experiences

B．they fear their memories will be gone with the thrown-away stuff

C．they hope to live life to their full potential by storing things away

D．they may have to change their lifestyle because of the loss of them

3.Which of the following is NOT the reason why the writer favors “minimalism” in life?                          

A．It takes the burden off her while she is moving.

B．It reduces her attachment to her personal things.

C．It enables her to gain the freedom that she desires.

D．It helps her to realize how true life is.

4.By saying “there are exceptions”, the writer means       

A．little is left if we keep what we cherish most in our life

B．minimalism should be practised accordingly in different situations

C．minimalism is a method difficult to employ in reality

D．life is full of exceptions so it’s difficult to preserve what we value

5.What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Minimalism brings happiness.

B．Minimalism is applied in many fields.

C．Minimalism makes people think nostalgically.

D．Minimalism is about able to move.

第Ⅱ卷(非选择题，共46分)

III.单词拼写（10分）

1. How much do you _________(要价) for mending shoes?                   1.__________

2. If she _______(继续) drinking like that, I’ll have to carry her home.          2. __________

3. The car couldn’t start because the _______（发动机）went wrong.          3.___________

4. It is _________(极其) cold in the South Pole.                            4. __________

5. The teacher walked the children out of the ________(幼儿园).              5. __________

6. I have _________(后悔) not having studied hard.                         6.___________

7. The newspaper described her as a ______(有前途的) young pianist.          7. __________

8. The girl was so angry that she __________(撕) the letter into pieces.          8. __________

9. He started his first _______（航海）with only one ship and ten men.         9. ___________

10. I felt a _________(急剧的) pain in my stomach.                         10. _________

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）

阅读下列短文，从A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项.

About a year ago, I went to stay at a Detroit hotel. I didn’t want to carry too much money with me, so I asked the desk clerk（服务员） to put a hundred-dollar bill in the safe(保险箱) for me.

The next morning, however, the clerk said he knew nothing about my money. I didn’t have any proof that I had given the man the money. There was nothing I could do but go to the nearest lawyer.

The lawyer advised me to return to the hotel with him and give another hundred-dollar bill to the clerk. This I did. An hour later, I went back to the desk and asked for my money. Since I had the lawyer as an eyewitness（证人） to the second hundred-dollar bill, the clerk could not say he knew nothing about it.

Another hour later, I put the second part of the lawyer’s plan into action. This time both the lawyer and I went to the hotel. I asked for the hundred-dollar bill once again, and when the clerk insisted he had already given it to me, I didn’t admit it. The lawyer said to him, “I saw this gentleman give you a hundred dollars. If you don’t hand it over immediately, I’ll be forced to call the police.”

The clerk realized he had been tricked, so he gave me back the first hundred-dollar bill.

“I don’t know how to thank you enough for getting my money back,” I said to the lawyer. And what do you suppose he answered?

He said, “Oh, don’t thank me. That will be a hundred dollars, please.”

1. The writer went to a Detroit hotel one day in order to_______.

A. get his money back                         B. stay for the night

C. ask the lawyer for help                           D. put a hundred-dollar bill in the safe

2. The hotel clerk at last returned the first hundred-dollar bill to the writer because _______.

A. he was afraid of the writer very much

B. he found the lawyer tricking him

C. he didn’t want to get into trouble with the police

D. he wanted to give the writer a surprise

3. It is clear that the hotel clerk was________.

A. dishonest                                          B. helpful 

C. careless                                      D. foolish

4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. The writer didn’t get his 200 dollars back..

B. The lawyer asked for 100 dollars as his pay.

C. The writer was so grateful as to offer the lawyer some money.

D. The lawyer was disappointed that the writer got both his bills back.