When Charles Strattion was five, he stopped growing. His mother took him to see the famous showman, P.T.Barnum, and thought a small person would be the perfect addition to his show. He hired Charles’ parents along with him, and they traveled around the world together.
He gave the two-foot-tall Charles a new name, general Tom Thumb. He taught Tom how to sing, dance, act, and tell jokes. When he felt Tom was ready to perform on stage, he made up ads. To stir up great interest, he said that Tom was eleven years old and had come from England.
During the show, Tom fought battles pretendedly with tall people. He also danced upon a wooden plate held by a person who was eight feet tall.
Tom’s act was very popular and brought in a lot of money. By the time Tom was an adult, he had grown very rich. He had become a billionaire at the age of twenty-five.
Fortunately for Tom, Mr. Barnum added more little people to his show, and Tom became lucky in love as well. One of the little people was Lavinia Warren, a school teacher. Tom was able to win her love, and they married.
The ceremony and reception were the talk of the town. They were attended by many rich and famous people and by about two thousand guests. Crowds filled the streets of New York to have a look at their tiny wedding carriage. The couple even met with President Abraham Lincoln on their honeymoon, just before going to live in Tom’s house in Connecticut.
Their wedding, which took place during the Civil War, provided a welcome escape from the sad problems of war. Not willing to let this bit of sunshine fade, communities throughout the country sponsored “Tom Thumb” weddings. In these weddings, small boys and girls, all dressed up, went through marriage ceremony for fun.
【小题1】“the talk of the town” means _________ .

The booking notes of the play “the Age of Innocence”:
Price: ＄10
BOOKING
There are four easy ways to book seats for performance:
------ in person
The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. ---8 p.m.
------ by telephone
Ring 01324976 to book your tickets or to pay by credit card（Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted）
------ by post
Simply complete the booking form and return it to Global Theatre Box Office.
------ on line
Complete the on-line booking form at www. Satanfiedtheatre. com
DISCOUNTS:
Saver:＄2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday. Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60s and full-time students.
Supersaver: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.
Standby: best available seats are on sale for＄6 from one hour before the performance for people suitable for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.
Group Bookings: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.
School: school parties often or more can book＄6 standby tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.
Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is cancelled due to unforeseen situations.
【小题1】If you want to book a ticket, you CANNOT  _________.

---Did you go to the show last night?

--- Yeah．Every boy and every girl in the area ____ invited．

A．were             B．was              C．has been          D．have been

In 1995, Susan Boyle went to Glasgow to audition（试镜）for My Kind of People, a televised talent show popular in the UK. She was immediately rejected. She was nervous during the audition, and felt she didn’t perform well, but her brother said that she was rejected because of her plain looks. Susan was not discouraged and continued to sing at church and at the karaoke nights in a local pub.
Susan suffered a personal loss in 1997, when her father passed away. After his death, Susan put her big dreams on hold to care for her sick mother, Bridget Boyle. The mother and daughter often talked of Susan’s possible fame. Bridget Boyle encouraged her daughter to take part in singing competitions. “She was the one who said I should enter Britain’s Got Talent. We used to watch it together,” Susan later told reporters. “She thought I would win.”
In 1999, Susan used all of her savings to pay for a professional demo（样本唱片）tape, which she sent to record companies. In 2002, Susan began taking singing lessons from voice coach Fred O’Neil.
In 2007, her mother passed away at the age of 91. A neighbor reported that when Bridget Boyle died, her daughter “wouldn’t come out for three or four days or answer the door or phone”. She lived alone with her cat, Pebbles. For over a year, she refused to sing. But in August of 2008, O’Neil urged her to try out for Britain’s Got Talent. Convinced that the performance would be an honor to her mother, Susan auditioned in Glasgow, Scotland. She sang I Dreamed A Dream, a hit song from the musical Les Miserables（《悲惨世界》）, in the first round of the show, which was aired on April 11, 2009.
The 47-year-old Scottish woman's plain looks provided a sharp contrast（对比）to her powerfully beautiful voice. The performance astonished the audience and the judges. Online videos of her performance totaled over 40 million views within a week. Although she failed to win the final of Britain’s Got Talent, Susan Boyle became globally popular. Her first album I Dreamed A Dream has sold over five million copies.
【小题1】Bridget Boyle’s attitude towards her daughter’s musical talent can be described as ___.

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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，从每题所给的四个选项（A, B, C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
During an exhibition show the skills of disabled people, an armless man used his mouth and feet to repair a watch. He completed the task in just a few minutes at the show, which was held in Beijing last Saturday. Just imagine the tiny parts that make up a watch. You have to wonder how the disabled man developed such a skill.
It was reported that 28-year-old Wang Jianghai lost his arms in an accident when he was five and began learning to repair watches at the age of 17. He has repaired more than 10,000 watches in the past 11 years.
What strong self-confidence he must have to overcome the difficulties in getting this skill! What optimism he must have to face the unfairness of his hard life! And what strong determination he must have to go through the hardship in his struggle for a normal life! Such confidence, optimism and willpower are exactly the qualities many physically healthy people lack nowadays. Wang has set a good example for young people.
But today's youth seem to be more interested with their TV stars and pop singers but less interested in learning from the examples of working and studying hard to achieve higher goals. . That is undoubtedly the result of the influence of a changing social atmosphere. One must admit that there is a trend towards hedonism in our society. People are increasingly more concerned about material gains than about spiritual pursuits. While adults know they must work hard whatever way they choose to materialize the gains, the younger generation are more likely to seek ease and comforts of their senses.
This pleasure-seeking trend provides a huge market for the entertainment industry and the mass media. The media devote excessive too much coverage to anecdotes of pop and TV stars, which in turn fans wider and stronger enthusiasm for entertainment among the public, especially young people.
Ours is a developing country. Global competition in the growth of national strength presents a demand for China to be quicker in its development. We cannot afford to lose time. We need to make our economy more powerful. To meet this need, all of us should maintain our tradition of working hard and overcoming difficulties.
56. A particular mention made of Wang Jianghai’s story in the first two paragraphs _____.
A. serves as a description of the trend today  
B. serves as an introduction to the discussion
C. shows a disagreement of views    
D. show the popularity of the TV stars and pop singers
57. Which of the following is the reason for young people’s increasing interest in entertainment?
A. Young people are taught by adults to seek pleasure of senses.
B. Young people have given up our traditional value of hard working completely
C. Young people are not interested in learning from the examples of hard working at all.
D. Young people are far too much influenced by too much entertainment news in media.
58. The underlined word “hedonism” (paragraph 4) means “________”.
A. a material                                                 B. spiritual gains
C. thinking pleasure is the most important            D. amusement